TAMPA — To enliven downtown, Tampa has tried: • Coloring the Hillsborough River kelly green for St. Patrick’s Day. • Creating a mac-and-cheese festival. • Putting a pop-up golf driving range on N Franklin Street. • Trucking in loads of white sand for a summer beach volleyball court. Now comes a hot pink pingpong table…
DetailsTampa, Florida –The federal government says Hillsborough County misused almost a million dollars in grants during its “Fight the Blight” campaign and it wants the money back. The inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development released a scathing audit of the county’s use of federal Community Development Block Grant money for these…
DetailsLive Oak — Local residents, business leaders and city officials filled the Passenger Train Depot Tuesday evening to discuss the future of Downtown Live Oak and to prioritize a list of projects they would like to see done in the upcoming CRA fiscal year. As a result, the group decided roadways, a medical clinic facility…
DetailsOxford Road in Fern Park is not one of Seminole County’s prettiest streets. The sidewalks are cracked and broken. The landscaping is either bare or filled with weeds. And empty parking lots are littered with liquor bottles, beer cans and other rubbish. Fernwood Boulevard, which runs alongside the Jai-Alai fronton and crosses Oxford Road, is…
DetailsTampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik isn’t ready yet to unveil a gleaming architectural drawing of how everything in the new Channelside Bay Plaza will look, partly because that plan won’t exist for many more months. However, on Friday some of his lieutenants sketched out a timeline for when they hope some of the major…
DetailsMercury Advisors is moving forward with its latest Channelside development, finalizing a joint venture with an Atlanta group and planning a fourth-quarter groundbreaking. Mercury will partner with Daniel Corp. on the apartment-and-retail development proposed on the block between East Twiggs and Madison streets, along Meridian Avenue, Principal Ken Stoltenberg said Friday. The project has been proposed as Martin at Meridian,…
DetailsThe fight for Channelside Bay Plaza is officially over. Now begins a new challenge: remaking downtown Tampa’s Channel District. Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik is Channelside’s new owner, thanks to the last-second settlement that ended the yearlong court fight over downtown’s outdoor mall. The deal was hammered out Sunday night and approved Monday by…
DetailsSARASOTA – Software entrepreneur Jesse Biter says his plans to build affordable apartments downtown have been stymied and he intends to either take on a partner or sell the rental site altogether. Biter’s decision comes months after he publicly touted a “new urbanist” vision involving apartments and retail space for the former United Way building…
DetailsSARASOTA – When Sarasota’s police chief was hired 18 months ago, she portrayed her strength as developing creative solutions to law enforcement problems. Bernadette DiPino said she prefers to reduce the need for arrests, when possible, by making changes at chronic trouble spots. That could involve better lighting, for instance, or zoning code changes, or…
DetailsORLANDO, FL, (July 28, 2014) – Seminole County, Fla. recently approved a Master Plan for the redevelopment of the Oxford Road area identified as a key “catalyst” site for redevelopment and reinvestment along the U.S. 17-92 corridor. It is a catalyst site because of its pivotal position on the Seminole County transportation network. The plan…
DetailsAs Rudy Tomarchio, 28, peers from the window of his 11th-floor Brickell apartment at the high-rises and construction cranes poking up from the horizon, he says there’s one thing missing from his view: a decent public transportation system. Though Tomarchio’s commute to work consists of a couple of blocks’ walk to the Metromover station and…
DetailsPALMETTO – As crews worked to finish a multi-million-dollar project aimed at cleaning some of Palmetto’s storm water before it reached the Manatee River, someone heard a clink. Then, a thud. Unbeknownst to construction crews, city planners and neighbors, an aging metal kerosene tank was buried under eight inches of dirt and concrete along 5th…
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