Developer pitches apartment tower for long-watched JH Williams Oil site in downtown Tampa's Channel district
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 13, 2020

The developers that built the Publix-anchored Channel Club in downtown Tampa want to build another apartment tower — on one of the most closely watched sites in the Channel district.

Atlanta-based ECI Ventures and Tampa developer Ken Stoltenberg have filed plans with the city to rezone the JH Williams Oil Company Inc. property to make way for an eight-story, 351-unit apartment tower known as Channel Club II. Stoltenberg was one of the first developers to bet big on the Channel district with the massive mixed-use Grand Central at Kennedy and worked for years to bring Publix Super Markets Inc. to the neighborhood.

City council will hold a public hearing on the rezoning request on July 16. Developers typically close on a property after the city signs off on their plans.

The JH Williams Oil site, which is just over 2 acres, has been rumored for a possible redevelopment for years as the Channel district has grown up around it. The property has frontage on Channelside Drive and is across the street from Grand Central and condo tower Ventana. It will be adjacent to Madison Street Park, which was developed as part of the first phase of the Channel Club and set to open in the coming weeks.

Channel Club II includes a 5,393-square-foot retail space overlooking the new park. It will also have a rooftop pool and 423 parking spaces, more than the 362 required by city code. The apartments range in size from 557-square-foot studios to 1,600-square-foot three-bedroom units. The average unit size in the building is 813 square feet.

The majority of the units — 196 of them — have one bedroom. There are 79 studios, 68 two bedrooms and eight three-bedroom units.