Self-storage developer has artsy vision for downtown Tampa
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 14, 2022

Developer Steve Freedman plans to build a self-storage facility in downtown Tampa that will look nothing like a self-storage facility.

Freedman is under contract to acquire the half-city block at 1221 N. Florida Ave., a transaction that he says will close next week. There, on what’s currently a surface parking lot, he envisions a 10-story, 1,200-unit “museum-quality” self-storage facility with street-level retail and a rooftop garden.

Nowhere, he says, will the building advertise that it’s a self-storage facility. Instead, he plans to hang banners promoting the Tampa Museum of Art, Glazer Children’s Museum and Tampa Bay History Center.

Freedman is passionate about the arts: Three of his four children work in the arts, he says, and he wants the city to promote its cultural institutions.

“I wanted to have a trophy property that as people drove past downtown, they’d see a building that looks like none other in downtown Tampa,” Freedman told the Tampa Bay Business Journal. “It would represent the arts.”

Florida is among the hottest markets in the U.S. for self-storage properties, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Part of the reason, Freedman says, is the apartment construction boom in downtown Tampa. Urban apartments are notoriously small and lacking in storage space, and there’s high demand for storage facilities within walking distance of downtown’s newest residences.

Construction and development costs will total $24 million, Freedman said — roughly $4 million to $5 million more than what it would cost to build a bare-bones self-storage facility. He hopes to break ground by mid-2023 and has not yet hired a general contractor. Los Angeles-based architect Bruce Jordan and Tampa’s RGA Design are designing the facility.

Freedman says he plans to self-fund the development. In August, he sold his facility near Midtown Tampa for $18.5 million.

There’s one potential challenge to his plans: Freedman says city staff has told him that self-storage facilities within the urban core must be contained within residential buildings and that the storage space can be no more than 40% of the building. He’s hired Elise Batsel, a partner at Stearns Weaver Miller in Tampa, to navigate the city approvals process and secure an exception that would allow his project to move forward.

Abbye Feeley, director of the city’s development and growth management department, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

By not allowing self-storage units in the urban core, Freedman says the city is sending downtown residents to outlying neighborhoods — where they might go shopping or out to eat, spending money that otherwise could’ve been spent in the city center.

“By not allowing storage downtown, the people have to get in their car and leave downtown,” Freedman said. “They’re going to go to dinner in Midtown or Westshore instead.”