23-story residential tower proposed off Bayshore Boulevar
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Feb 23, 2016

A new residential tower is in the works for a surface parking lot one block off Bayshore Boulevard.

Tampa-based Skyway Capital Partners LLC has proposed a 250-foot apartment tower at 2907 W. Bay to Bay Blvd., on the surface parking lot bound by South Ysabella Avenue and West Barcelona Street. The tower will be 22 or 23 stories, depending on final approvals, said Truett Gardner, a partner with Gardner Brewer Martinez-Monfort PA, who represents Skyway.

Alfonso Architects is the designer.

It will include 168 apartments, a mix of one- and two-bedroom units that will average 1,000 square feet, Gardner said. The development will include 505 parking spaces.

At the height of the previous real estate cycle, the site was entitled for 100,000 square feet of office development. Initial meetings with surrounding neighbors have gone well, Gardner said, as many are pleased that the tower would mean less traffic than a new office development.

The site is adjacent to two office buildings - a 46,000-square-foot building that's home to local diner Pach's Place as well as a 45,000-square-foot building - both of which will remain on the property. An industrial building on the surface parking lot will be demolished.

Skyway closed on the entire property - the surface lot and office buildings - in September 2015, paying $11.25 million, according to Hillsborough County property records.

Farther north on Bayshore Boulevard, another apartment building has set an impressive comp for rental units - 2 Bayshore, which was developed as Crescent Bayshore and sold for more than $300,000 per apartment in fall 2014. That property commands market-high rents.

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.