Westshore developers jockey for position

It's still anyone's guess as to when Tampa will get a new office building in response to declining vacancy rates, but developers are already jockeying for position.

In the downtown core, Feldman Equities' plan for the 52-story Riverwalk Tower and Strategic Property Partners' proposal to develop a signature tower as part of its $2 billion Channelside redevelopment have garnered considerable attention in the past year.

More quietly, though, a handful of developers in the suburban Westshore submarket — for years an area where Class A tenants gravitated — have begun readying sites for possible construction.

Most recently, Tier REIT has proffered plans for Eisenhower II, a three- or four-story office building on George Road adjacent to the Bristol-Myers Squibb's North America Capability Center.

As designed, Eisenhower II would contain between 90,000 square feet and 120,000 square feet and have 30,000-square-foot floor plates. The project also has preliminary site plan approval, according to marketing materials. Commercial brokerage Avison Young is handling pre-leasing.