Interview: Nicholas Haines

Community

Finishing touches on Midtown Tampa project will help create not only a destination, but a sense of community

Nicholas Haines CEO – Bromley Companies

What’s the status the Midtown Tampa project? We broke ground on the Midtown project in May 2019 and we are well under construction for the first phase. There are 11 buildings going up at the same time, three residential, two office buildings, several retail ones including a Whole Foods Kitchen, first-to-market Shack Shack and True Food Kitchen, both of which are significant expansions in the market. A 1,200-car parking garage that is already topped out, and we’re right on schedule. The goal is to finish it by the 2021 Super Bowl, which will be held here in Tampa Bay just a couple miles up the street. A lot of what we are doing now is spending a tremendous amount of time on the finishing touches of the common spaces designs that create community. It is about creating an imaginative destination not just for the people working, living and shopping here, but for the neighborhood by adding public art and a feel for the place, all the things that make a space interesting and dynamic.

What business trends are you keeping an eye on? Accessibility and pedestrian-friendliness. I just read about a development in Arizona, with 1,000 residential units and no parking. That is a bold thing for a non super-urban area. What we are trying to do is create one of the first, pedestrian-first mindset versus car-first developments in Tampa Bay and Florida. All the streets inside the development are private which is a really interesting feature of Midtown Tampa. We are not constrained by the city’s rules regarding traffic and street design. For a big event like the Super Bowl, we can close the streets and all the cars access Midtown from the periphery. We have designed curbless sidewalks, for example, and dedicated rideshare drop-off areas. The city of Tampa is working on a number of mass transit initiatives and we are working to accommodate a mass transit stop on one of our

main corridors. People are going to live, work and shop here because they want to wake up, go to a coffee shop, walk their dog to the dog park, go shopping at Whole Foods, have a drink at the hotel rooftop bar, and maybe work at one of the office buildings. They’ll also be able to ride a bike path that connects from Midtown Tampa to the Greenway Trail System.

What other areas do you see as a hotspot for real estate developments? It’s really exploding. The Heights area is really interesting. St. Petersburg is incredibly exciting and a great example of a vibrant, urban place with the interplay between food and art. We are talking about a city that has transformed itself over 10 years in terms of the energy there.

( ) project in the spring of 2020, assuming the necessary approvals are obtained from the appropriate agencies.

Rental market As it becomes increasingly difficult for many people to purchase homes, rentals are benefiting with prices on the rise, fueling the investment market for these properties. The neighborhoods with the highest appreciation rates are: Ybor City, North Boundary Boulevard, University of South Florida Main Campus, North Tampa Street and West Columbus Drive, North Meridian Avenue and East Washington Street, North Morgan Street and East Columbus Drive, City Center, North Florida Avenue and West Emma Street, North Taliaferro Avenue and East Osborne Avenue, and Gary. In terms of the initial cost of investment, Old Seminole Heights, Sun Bay South and Tampa Palms all provide a good value. Sunset Park has a median listing price of $1.1 million, making it the most expensive neighborhood, whereas East Tampa is the most affordable with a median listing price of $149,900.

Although the cost of purchasing a home in Tampa Bay remains affordable when compared to the national average, and particularly when compared to other major coastal metros, housing affordability is becoming more of an issue as many residents’ wages fail to keep up with rising home values, meaning more people will have to rent. This essentially guarantees a growing demand for rentals. The current median monthly rent stands at $1,585, compared to the Florida median rent of $1,716 and nationwide median rent of $1,594, demonstrating that Tampa Bay’s rental housing affordability is on par with national trends and actually faring better than affordability across the state by a fair bit.

Affordable housing Affordable housing is in crisis throughout most of the country, and Tampa Bay is no exception. The cost of owning a home is quickly outpacing the average earnings of Tampa residents, which puts the dream of owning a home increasingly out of reach for many people. “There are plenty of customers for all the big builders, but the people who work in retail, hospitality and more, who are all long-term employees in the region, have a hard time finding a place to live. Having more housing that is safe and affordable is crucial to an economically healthy community. For Tampa Bay to continue prospering as it has, there needs to be more access to workforce housing. Communities are also going to be much healthier when we can have all income groups living together rather than having this sort of economic segregation that tends to happen when there isn’t enough availability of this type of housing,” Executive Director of Florida Home Partnership Mike Morina told Invest:. According to the figures from 2018, 35.3% of the region’s residents rent as a result, but even this is becoming an increasingly unaffordable option. Tampa had the 14th-highest rent increases among the Top 50 U.S. metro areas in 2019, and the second-highest in Florida after Orlando. Assuming a 40-hour work week, it now requires a wage of $21.79 per hour, or a salary of $45,300 per year, to afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment in Tampa Bay. This means a minimum wage earner would need to work 2.6 jobs to reach this threshold. At this point, proactive action is required to combat the shortage of affordable homes. One example of such action is the development of properties like the Haley Park Apartments, which were opened in the University Square neighborhood after the closure of a similar affordable housing complex, North Boulevard Apartments. Haley Park provides affordable housing to many elderly residents and others struggling to afford

The Tampa Bay commercial real estate market finished 2019 with overall asking rents increasing year-over-year by 5.6%.

Christopher Bowen Chief Development Strategist – RD Management LLC

The young demographic that is highly educated, highly trained, very creative, very innovative and very motivated is an asset that has not been fully unleashed yet. I cannot wait to see what they produce over the next 10 years. Anybody who’s developing real estate in Tampa Bay, whether you’re developing residential or commercial or mixed-use communities, I think this demographic is going to be your biggest catalyst and biggest positive unknown. The question will be what is this growing base of residents and doers in the community going to create in terms of value and how great are they going to make this market in the next 10 to 20 years. I don’t see anybody analyzing that or scoring that. For me, it makes me feel really good about investing and developing in this market because I know that every time I look, that segment is coming up with something else that is really cool and innovative.

rent. There are also certain neighborhoods with rents below $900, including Carrollwood, Temple Terrace, and the Greater Northdale area. In Pinellas County, Redington Beach, Oldsmar, Dunedin and Indian Shores also offer options in the same price range.

Growing neighborhoods Neighborhoods are growing at historic rates all across Florida, with only about a dozen out of all neighborhoods across the state failing to expand in 2019. Within this ecosystem of booming growth, the Tampa/St. Petersburg region emerged at the top of the pack, with its East Ybor neighborhood claiming the No. 1 spot following 19.19% growth year-over-year, and 10 other neighborhoods making the Top 50 list with more than 10% annual growth. These other 10 fast-growing Tampa neighborhoods are: Wellswood, the Allendale Association, Virginia Park, Swann Estates, Bon Air North, Riverside Heights, Oakford Park, Highland Pines, Highland Oaks, and Clam Bayou. Additionally, some Tampa neighborhoods that are particularly good places to invest in rental property include Grant Park, Port Tampa City, University Square, Historic Ybor, Wet Riverfront, and Temple Crest.

Perhaps one of the most hotly-anticipated neighborhoods in Tampa, however, is Water Street Tampa, a $3 billion mixed-use district that is under construction between Tampa’s central business district and the Channel district waterfront. One of the development’s many subprojects – a $50 million ( )