Virage Bayshore notches $130 million in sales

The developers of the 24-story Virage Bayshore condominium tower have closed on roughly $130 million in unit sales with buyers, just a few months after final completion of the 71-unit residential project.

Virage Bayshore developers Batson-Cook Development Co. and Ascentia Development Group expect to finalize all scheduled closings this month, including that of an upper penthouse. Two of the units in the tower, where prices range from $1 million to $5 million, remain unsold to date.

Closings began in May.

“We feel really good about it,” says Jay Tallman, whose Ascentia Development is Virage Bayshore’s managing partner. “Given all the challenges that are in the world today, it feels good to finally bring this project home.”

Construction on Virage Bayshore, which was designed by architectural firm Curts Gaines Hall Jones, began in October 2017 and was completed earlier this year.

The luxury high-rise building, developed on three acres on Bayshore Boulevard that had for years been the site of the Colonnade Restaurant, kicked off a wave of interest in Tampa condo development.

In the wake of Virage Bayshore’s sales success by residential brokerage firm Smith & Associates — 70% of the units were committed within a year of the project coming to market — plans for several additional condo towers were unveiled in Tampa.

In addition to Strategic Property Partners’ plans at Water Street Tampa and Miami-based Two Roads Development’s Riverwalk Place, which had been announced before Virage Bayshore’s construction, a handful of other projects have been revealed.

Ronto Group, Taub Entities, The Related Group and The Kolter Group’s planned upscale condo towers would add hundreds of additional condos to Tampa’s skyline.

Batson-Cook and Ascentia also have plans for a new condo tower. In June 2019, the duo announced plans to develop a 34-story building with 80 units at 507 N. Ashley Drive, across from Curtis Hixon Park.

Units in Arris Tampa would range from $600,000 to $2 million.

Tallman says he and Batson-Cook executives are currently “evaluating alternatives and options” for the project based on the market.