Channelside Bay Plaza restaurants close in prep for demolition
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 14, 2017

Restaurants in the southwest wing of Channelside Bay Plaza are shuttering as Strategic Property Partners preps to demolish that portion of the beleaguered waterfront mall.

Hablo Taco, a Tex-Mex restaurant by Guy Revelle that opened with great fanfare in early 2015, will close at the end of August. Thai Tani closed at the end of July.

Kimmins Contracting Corp. has filed for a demolition permit for the southwest wing of the plaza, a spokeswoman for SPP said Monday. Demolition is scheduled for mid-September.

"Demolishing the southwest wing allows us to open Channelside up to the waterfront and create a new active plaza for the community so we're eager to get work underway," Ali Glisson, a spokeswoman for SPP, wrote in an email.

A waterfront park with programming will create a destination within the district before the majority of its buildings break ground (more than a dozen buildings are slated to begin vertical construction in early 2018).

Port Tampa Bay, which owns the land beneath the plaza, approved SPP's plans to knock down that wing of the mall in June. On that waterfront land, SPP envisions a heavily programmed park featuring art, festivals and pop-up bars and restaurants.

The mid-September timeline for demolition is more specific than anything SPP has previously released. In June, the developer told the port board that demolition could begin "later this summer."

SPP, the real estate development company controlled by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Cascade Investment LLC, is behind Water Street Tampa, a $3 billion, mixed-use district between the Channel district waterfront and Tampa's central business district.

Splitsville and Boathouse, both of which are owned by Revelle, will remain in the plaza, Glisson said.

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