Residents opposed to Tampa apartment development to get their say

TAMPA — Opponents of an apartment and townhouse development in Tampa will get a chance to air their objections before city officials at a zoning hearing July 22.

While proposed zoning changes to allow developments are fairly common — as are homeowners complaining about apartments and townhouses moving in — this one carries extra weight. It is part of a larger push that could permanently transform a section of South Tampa where rapid, and some say inevitable, commercial growth is already butting up against multimillion-dollar homes and a decades-old neighborhood.

The controversy centers around three planned developments that could bring several hundred new apartments as well as townhomes, office space and parking garages to the Beach Park neighborhood.

The July 22 hearing is for the development planned for 200 S. Hoover Blvd.

Sitting on the corner of South Hoover and West Cleveland Street is Mariner Square Park. The 3.9-acre office park is made up of a series of beige one- and two- story buildings that border on a residential neighborhood and sit across from an existing apartment complex, Mosaic Westshore.

The development group, based in Houston, is asking that the property be rezoned from office to multifamily homes. According to a site plan filed with the city of Tampa, the new development would consist of 392 apartments facing South Hoover and a 16-unit townhouse development. The site plan also shows that a seven-story parking garage would be built along West Azeele Street.

The Beach Park neighborhood is off Westshore and Kennedy boulevards, near the on ramp to the Howard Frankland Bridge and within walking distance to WestShore Plaza. 

The area is already surrounded by a high concentration of offices, apartments, townhouses, condominiums restaurants, gas stations and two hotels. A Publix opened in early 2020, and the side streets of Azeele and Cleveland are already used as cut-throughs during rush hours.

But, because it’s the first neighborhood when you head south on Westshore past Kennedy, it is also a gateway of sorts into South Tampa, one of the city’s oldest and wealthiest areas.

Today Beach Park is filled with a mix of recently built million-dollar homes and ranchers that have been there for years. Neighbors, many of who live in the larger homes that replaced the older ranchers, have started a campaign to oppose the developments. Scattered throughout the neighborhood are signs asking residents to support the group, Save Beach Park.

The residents’ group argues that bringing that many apartments into the area would cause overcrowding at local schools and on nearby streets.

Proponents, though, say that growth in an area already in the midst of a transformation, especially when condominiums, apartments and office complexes already exist in the neighborhood, is unavoidable. 

If approved, the developments would replace the office buildings on South Hoover Boulevard as well ones on Bay Center Drive and Mariner Street with multi-story structures.

One of the projects under consideration is being spearheaded by a development group tied to the Kiran & Pallavi Patel Foundation for Global Understanding. That development would bring a 12-story mixed-use building that would sit on the water.

The hearing is set for 6 p.m. July 22 in the City Council chamber of the Old City Hall on Kennedy Boulevard.