Roundup 12-30-2022

Due to the holidays, we have an abbreviated Roundup this week.  Have a safe and happy New Year.

Contents

Downtown

— One Tampa

— 914 Morgan (aka 505 E. Tyler)

— Harbour Island

Channel District

— 940 Channelside

— VeLa South

Population

Meanwhile, In the Rest of the Country

_______________________

Downtown

— One Tampa

When last we left the One Tampa condo proposal, it was a 55-story and over 600 feet and a new tallest for Tampa (here).  Well, now the website says this:

Distinguished by its graceful curves and multi-faceted design, ONE TAMPA will soar 42 stories to become the iconic new luxury address in the Downtown Tampa skyline. 

That is quite the unreported on shrinkage. The cause is unclear. Some of the skyscraper forums discuss FAA concerns about the height and Peter O. Knight Airport, which would be odd because there are rather tall buildings closer to the airport.  Or there could be market forces.  Or something else.  We really do not know, but, for some reason, it seems we will have to wait to cross the 600 ft threshold.

— 914 Morgan (aka 505 E. Tyler)

There are new renderings of the apartment tower proposal for 914 Morgan (aka 505 E Tyler) which we discussed recently (here):

 

From Florida Future at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

 

From Florida Future at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

 

From Florida Future at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

 

From Florida Future at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

 

From Florida Future at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

 

From Florida Future at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

We are not going to get into the missing quarter of the lot, surface parking, land banking, and the City’s poor tax code right now.  Rather, we are going to note that the proposed building looks decent in the renderings (which is what renderings are for and, in our opinion, it looks better from the narrow sides of the tower than the wide sides).  However, the garage screening is still unclear and in some of the renderings you see car silhouettes in the garage. Since renderings are basically attempts to show the building at its best, if they represent visible cars in the garage, the screening probably will not be the best.

Once again, the City could actually care about the built environment and do something about screening, but there is no evidence that is does or will.

— Harbour Island

When last we left the proposed Harbour Island AC Hotel (here), the project had been reject then brought back in reduced form, but the neighbors still opposed it. So, the City Council dutifully rejected it:

The second time was much like the first time for Punit Shah’s bid to build a hotel on Harbour Island.

Residents of the gated communities on the south end of the island packed City Council chambers Thursday night, filling up an overflow room at City Hall to oppose the project. And, like the first time residents showed up in big numbers in May, Council members shot down a proposed AC Marriott property, a brand that emphasizes modern, European-style design and cuisine.

The 4-3 vote to reject a special magistrate’s finding in support of a revised proposal to shave the height of the building from 12 to 10 stories and make other concessions to address traffic and pedestrian issues.

This is what is across the street:

 

From the Times – click on picture for article

Litigation is always uncertain but, if this goes back to a lawsuit the City stands a decent chance of losing and it will cost taxpayer money.  Thus, in an interesting take on wealth distribution (as with a case years ago in Hyde Park that cost taxpayers millions  and resulted in the lot in questions now having Hyde Park House on it), the City will be taking money (that will not be used for real needs) from people all around the city (including not very wealthy ones) for this:

Harbour Island residents rejoiced. They argued that the hotel was too big, didn’t fit into the neighborhood and would exacerbate traffic problems for residents already dealing with Convention Center and Amalie Arena logjams. Some residents, like Sam Hallenbeck, drew a contrast between the urban environment north of Knight’s Run and the “suburban oasis” south of the gates where they live.

“Over there is the city. Here is suburbia. It works great as is,” Hallenbeck said.

Except it is not suburbia, it is downtown.  And even in suburbia, the rules should be followed. (And if the City loses, something will get built there anyway.)

If the City did not like the rules, it should have changed the code before this came up.

Channel District

— 940 Channelside

When last we left 940 Channelside, there was a proposal for a 31-story residential building attached to the Place. (here).  The garage screening was a bit ambiguous. Now, there have been some changes:

 

From Florida Future at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

You can see that the garage screening is essentially gone, which is what should be expected when the City government does not seem to care about the aesthetics of the city.  Developers are in business and will most will only spend what they have to (which is completely reasonable from their perspective).  It is up to the City government to set standards.  And Tampa sets them very low (if at all).

— VeLa South

We have already discussed the two tower VeLa proposal in the Channel District at 1242 Channelside. (here, here, and here)  Now, there is third tower proposed, from URBN Tampa Bay:

A new 25 story residential tower is being proposed for 1236 Channelside Drive in the Channel District. The tower includes 225 residential units and 1,350 sf of ground floor commercial space. The tower is being dubbed “Vela Tower South,” making it the third tower proposed in this end of Channel District under the Vela name.

You can find the Accela entry (1236 Channelside) here.

 

From TampaTomorrow at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

 

From TampaTomorrow at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

 

From TampaTomorrow at SkyscraperCity – click on picture for post

The line drawing in nice enough but leaves out a lot of details like materials and garage screening. There is a bit of retail, but we would like to see more given that the buildings fronts Channelside.  At least the other buildings in the group have more retail.

We generally like the VeLa series (as much as we can, given the information we have). However, given the missing information, we cannot have a strong feeling one way or the other about the third building.

At least the recent proposals for the Channel District are higher density than in the past.  Too bad the City settled early on.

Population

If you think it feels more crowded these days, this might be why:

Florida, which has seen a surge in migrants since the onset of the pandemic, was the state with the fastest-growing population in 2022, taking top spot for the first time since 1957, Census Bureau data show. 

Florida’s population increased by 1.9% to 22.2 million between 2021 and 2022, the data show, surpassing Idaho, which led last year. Florida had the second-largest numeric gains, behind Texas.

Rank	Geographic Area	April 1, 2020(Estimates Base)	July 1, 2021	July 1, 2022
1	California	39,538,245	39,142,991	39,029,342
2	Texas	29,145,428	29,558,864	30,029,572
3	Florida	21,538,226	21,828,069	22,244,823
4	New York	20,201,230	19,857,492	19,677,151
5	Pennsylvania	13,002,689	13,012,059	12,972,008
6	Illinois	12,812,545	12,686,469	12,582,032
7	Ohio	11,799,374	11,764,342	11,756,058
8	Georgia	10,711,937	10,788,029	10,912,876
9	North Carolina	10,439,414	10,565,885	10,698,973
10	Michigan	10,077,325	10,037,504	10,034,113

From KTLA here.

Bloomberg gives this explanation:

Wealthy Northeasterners and Californians have long flocked to Miami, drawn to its warm weather and lower taxes. The pandemic accelerated that shift, but overall population growth rates still greatly lag behind Florida’s 1950s growth spurt, when the average annual increase was 6.1%.

But Miami is not the fastest growing part of Florida.  In fact, recent Census reports say it lost population.

There are many estimates of population growth and surveys.  Here is one from Inspection Support Network (here)

Rank	Metro	Percentage change in population (2016–2021)	Total change in population (2016–2021)	Population 2021
1	Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX	+14.1%	+290,410	2,352,426
2	Raleigh-Cary, NC	+11.1%	+144,557	1,448,411
3	Jacksonville, FL	+11.0%	+161,643	1,637,666
4	Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL	+9.6%	+236,342	2,691,925
5	Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN	+9.3%	+171,182	2,012,476
6	Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC	+8.1%	+201,349	2,701,046
7	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	+7.9%	+564,857	7,759,615
8	San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX	+7.2%	+175,512	2,601,788
9	Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV	+7.2%	+153,640	2,292,476
10	Salt Lake City, UT	+6.6%	+78,340	1,263,061
11	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA	+6.2%	+356,085	6,144,050
12	Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN	+6.0%	+120,044	2,126,804
13	Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX	+5.9%	+400,338	7,206,841
14	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	+5.8%	+272,809	4,946,145
15	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL	+5.6%	+170,551	3,219,514
16	Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA	+5.2%	+119,895	2,411,428
17	Richmond, VA	+5.2%	+65,591	1,324,062
18	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	+5.1%	+195,198	4,011,553
19	Oklahoma City, OK	+5.0%	+68,662	1,441,647
20	Columbus, OH	+4.8%	+98,825	2,151,017

At least according to this study, we have significant growth, but other, smaller areas (usual suspects like Nashville, Austin, Charlotte, and San Antonio) seem to have seen faster growth in rate and absolute numbers (though it would be interesting to see the 2022 growth as well).

Meanwhile, In the Rest of the Country

Parking is a topic of interest these days, more specifically the excessive amount of parking required by local codes.  We ran across a couple of interesting articles on the subject.  First, from Bloomberg an article about garages:

The parking garage is such an inescapable element of modern urban life that it became essential pop culture infrastructure, site of many a cinematic brawl, car chase and dance number. It’s where Redford’s Bob Woodward met Deep Throat, where Sean Boswell had his ass handed to him before he knew how to drift. But the grim functionality of these spaces — not to mention their fundamentally somewhat anti-human function — has made them infrequent sources of design inspiration. 

That’s starting to change, as architects and urban planners try to flip the script on these behemoths. The goal? Transform them from corrosive eyesores into structures that are both beautiful and inviting.

Except in Tampa, where the City is happy to have garages feature prominently (like the TGH garage on Kennedy).

You can read more here.

Then there was a Guardian article on the more general subject of the amount of parking:

They are grey, rectangular and if you lumped their population of up to 2bn together they would cover roughly the same area as Connecticut, about 5,500 sq miles. Car parking spaces have a monotonous ubiquity in US life, but a growing band of cities and states are now refusing to force more upon people, arguing they harm communities and inflame the climate crisis.

These measures, along with expansive highways that cut through largely minority neighborhoods and endless suburban sprawl, have cemented cars as the default option for transportation for most Americans.

From January, though, California will become the first state to enact a ban on parking minimums, halting their use in areas with public transport in a move that governor Gavin Newsom called a “win-win” for reducing planet-heating emissions from cars, as well as helping alleviate the lack of affordable housing in a state that has lagged in building new dwellings.

Several cities across the country are now rushing doing the same, with Anchorage, Alaska, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Nashville, Tennessee, all recently loosening or scrapping requirements for developers to build new parking lots. “These parking minimums have helped kill cities,” said Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Business School who accused political leaders of making downtowns “look like bombs hit them” by filling them with parking lots.

You know the story, and that Tampa is behind the curve on this as well (we will not even mention Hillsborough County).

You can read more here.