By SUSAN THURSTON, City Times Editor
Published September 1, 2006
View from the Arlington balcony looking down towards the Residences of Franklin St. and the Skypoint Tower.
Tony Cunningham started buying property on N Franklin Street in 1984 when vagrants and boarded up buildings dominated the north end of downtown. He saw potential in the area a few short blocks from Tampa's gleaming new office towers. He figured it was on the cusp of a rebirth.
Then the city set it sights south. The Tampa Convention Center went up along the waterfront. The ice arena, hotels and highrises followed. N Franklin fell off the map.
Twenty years later, Cunningham, 74, and his partners finally see new reason for hope. "We realized that if you're patient, it would come," he said. "We thought it was going to be a lot sooner than it has been."
A walk up Franklin shows signs of change. The Fly bar and restaurant debuted a month ago to big crowds. The Residences of Franklin Street, a 40-unit condominium project, opens in a few weeks. So does the Arlington, which has offices on the first floor and 21 residential units on the upper level.
Farther south, construction is under way on SkyPoint and Six Ten Franklin condo towers, which promise hundreds of new downtown residents. Buyers generally wanted to be close to downtown attractions such as the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Curtis Hixon Park and the Tampa Theatre. Many also looked in the Channel District but opted for N Franklin because the area was more historic and established.
Only four units remain in the Residences, he said. The Arlington is almost sold out. Some people who bought for investments now plan to live there, either out of necessity or choice.
Unlike the Channel District, a former bare industrial enclave, Franklin emerges with some character already built in.
Years ago, the city curved the street and redid the bricks. It added antique street lights and decorative brick pavement at some intersections and planted trees, which actually matured. Cunningham, a downtown trial attorney, and his wife, Robin, donated $25,000 for a fountain near Massey Park, a small city park at Franklin and Tyler Street.
Still, the area has a ways to go. Several restaurants and stores, once the backbone of downtown, have closed. Doorways of longtime vacant storefronts smell like urine. Pedestrians vanish after dark, surrendering streets to the homeless.
The Tampa Downtown Partnership, ever striving to make downtown more exciting, hopes to fill those storefronts through a new leasing program. The partnership would team up with building owners to renovate and lease ground-level space to small-business owners and artists for a few years as the area gains momentum. "We want to get warm bodies, excitement on the streets," said Paul Ayres, the partnership's director of marketing and business development.
Expect additional commercial activity from the Doring Group, an appraisal, brokerage and development company that's turning the old Walgreens at Franklin and Twiggs Street into 11 or 12 retail and cafe condos on the street level and office condos on the second. Doring bought the building a year ago in the hopes of catching the latest development wave. "It's an exciting time to be downtown," said chief executive officer Brenda Doring. Her daughter, Abbey Doring, has started a property owners' group to work on ways to make downtown more of a destination. High on their list will be quashing negative perceptions of the area starting with Tampa's common gripe: There's no place to park.
THE LAST DROP: People craving more outdoor dining spots have a new choice. The Fly bar and restaurant at 1202 N Franklin St. has the go-ahead to add sidewalk dining on the wide sidewalk out front.
Owner Leslie Shirah plans to put out about 10 tables, possibly as soon as this weekend.
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