Downtown Tampa/Channelside/Ybor City…Good Options For MacDill
Posted by Lenny Gurvich on August 14, 2007
We recently helped a client working on base at MacDill find a condo in a pinch. He was moving from New Orleans where he had been living in a French Quarter condo for a few years. He and his girlfriend really liked the lifestyle of the living in the Quarter, and being born and raised (21 yrs at least) in the NOLA area, I could identify. So the plan was to help them find something here in Tampa that could come close to that style of housing.
There were three distinct areas that we concentrated on while looking:
Downtown Tampa
Downtown Tampa, like many of our country’s larger cities, is experiencing a rebirth so to speak. Two years ago there were not many options available if you wanted to live in Tampa’s downtown. Fast forward to today in which Tampa’s first high rise residential project is just being completed. Skypoint, in Tampa’s Arts District is just now getting its first residents and more are coming as the closings on the highest floors begin. And next door, Element, the next highrise in line and built by the same developer, is coming out of the ground. Pre-construction sales have been brisk. These two buildings will offer urban, high-tech and high-rise living in condominiums that are priced currently in the low $200s and up.
See what’s for sale at Skypoint and Element.
The Channel District
A previous industrial/warehouse area, the Channel District, a.k.a. Channelside, is
morphing into a hip, soon to be lively, urban residential area. Adjacent to downtown Tampa, Channelside has many brand new mid-rise condo projects and one soon to be completed high rise project, many of the loft-style. Channelside and downtown are both close to The Florida Aquarium, The St. Pete Times Forum (home of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning), and the Channelside entertainment complex, a mix of retail and popular restaurants and clubs. You can get a sampling of property types and prices for Channelside lofts and condos here.
Ybor City
Tampa’s historical “Cigar City“, Ybor is a lively mix of restaurants, clubs and retail with many new residential projects such as Box Factory Lofts, a renovated cigar box factory that is now a group of residential lofts on the edge of the Ybor National Historic Landmark. Browse Box Factory Lofts for sale.
All three areas are linked by Tampa’s Teco Line Streetcar Trolley system. More importantly, all three areas are within a fifteen minute commute to MacDill AFB via the Leroy Selmon Expressway, a toll road (welcome to Florida!) running from near MacDill to the outlying areas of eastern Hillsborough County.
So what did our client choose? Ybor City. It was an easy choice for him because of the similarity to The French Quarter. Ybor City is Tampa’s Latin Quarter and provides residents the opportunity to walk to shopping, fine dining and many entertainment options. Want a cigar? Cuban sandwich? How about a cup of cafe’ con leche? There all available within a short walk of any of Ybor’s residential projects.
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