Mayor takes lead on touting would-be $85M Tampa ?arts? development

A look at how the proposed $85 million tower might look like.

Politicians are well known for talking about vision and establishing plans. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is set to add real substance to his InVision Tampa plan, a community master plan shared in detail in November.

Late Monday, Buckhorn threw full support behind an $85 million private investment to build a 350-unit residential complex in the heart of downtown Tampa?s burgeoning arts district. The project is envisioned in a right of way between Cass and Tyler streets next to the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts. As part of the development, which will include 10,000 square feet of retail and five floors of parking, the city will reconfigure the streets.

Intown/Framework Group LLC is the developer and expects to complete the project by the end of 2014, a statement from the city said.

"The project allows us to make a strong physical and important visual connection between Curtis Hixon and the Arts District to the Straz Center and North Downtown,? said Buckhorn in a prepared statement. The Straz Center for the Performing Arts has also thrown its support behind the effort.

?Our guest experience is very important," said Judith Lisi, president and CEO, in the statement. "All of the enhancements included in the project, in particular the improvements to the road network and to our arrival plaza, will ensure that they do," Lisi said.

Word of the still unnamed project first surfaced in October in published reports about an Art Deco tower on a triangle-shaped property. In the summer, there was a request for proposals seeking experienced developers. It received just one response, from the partnership of intowngroup and Framework Group.

Alexis Muellner is Editor of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

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