TAMPA — Mayor Bob Buckhorn and other city officials were thrilled last week when Feldman Equities submitted preliminary plans for what would be the tallest building on Florida’s west coast — a 52-story mixed-use tower on the riverfront site where Donald Trump in 2005 announced an extravagant condo project that never got off the ground.
Like Trump, Larry Feldman is a native New Yorker; unlike Trump, Feldman now lives in Tampa and has a proven track record in the bay area. He is co-owner of the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Tampa and three office buildings in downtown St. Petersburg. Raised in a family that started in real estate by building enclosures around plumbing equipment, Feldman successfully marketed projects in Manhattan — including a 40-story midtown office tower — before investing in the Orlando area. But for the past few years his focus has been on Tampa Bay’s increasingly vibrant downtowns.
The father of a son and daughter in their 20s, Feldman spoke with the Tampa Bay Times about his newest project and how the millennial generation is changing American cities.