Feldman to demo Tampa's CapTrust Building

Calling it a “significant hurdle” in the planned development of a 52-story, mixed-use tower that would become Tampa's tallest building, Feldman Equities and Tower Realty Partners are planning to demolish a downtown office building early in 2018.

Razing the CapTrust Financial Advisors building at 102 W. Whiting St. will allow Feldman and Tower Realty to proceed with plans for Riverwalk Tower on a vacant, adjacent lot.

Feldman CEO Larry Feldman says CapTrust has agreed to a long-term lease within the joint landlords' 36-story Park Tower property, which the pair acquired with City Office REIT Inc. in November 2016 for $79.75 million.

CapTrust is slated to move to the 475,000-square-foot Park Tower, at 400 N. Tampa St., this month.

The six-story, 48,740-square-foot Whiting Street building being razed beginning in February was completed in 1974. The 1.73-acre site will be incorporated into Riverwalk Tower, a groundbreaking for which is expected next summer.

The planned $200 million Riverwalk Tower — on the last undeveloped waterfront site in Tampa — is expected to contain 215,000 square feet of Class A office space and 203 luxury residences.

Feldman says the demolition work on the CapTrust building will take roughly three months to complete.

“It's a critical piece, because there's no new tower without that building site being brought into it,” Feldman says.

Park Tower is in the midst of a multimillion renovation aimed at modernizing the building's façade with a lighter color and new entrance. The improvements are slated to be completed in the first quarter of 2018.