OK/B wanting convention hotel in Tampa

[chad]

TB Business Journal: (http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2008/07/21/daily26.html)

Another luxury hotel may be coming to downtown Tampa.

One of the goals of the new owners of the Tampa Bay Lightning is to build a convention hotel on the site of the VIP parking lot across the street from the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina, said Paul Catoe, president and chief executive officer of Tampa Bay & Company, Hillsborough County's tourism marketing organization.

[Donnie D]

I thought the interesting quote was this one:

The property is large enough to support an 800- to 900-room hotel with meeting space, said Lou Plasencia, chief executive officer of the Plasencia Group Inc., consultants to the hotel industry. Real estate, not the team, was the driving force to purchase the Lightning, the St. Pete Times Forum and the surrounding land, he said.

Who is this guy and does he actually have a relationship with the Lightning?

[TexasBolt]

I thought the Marriott Waterside was the convention hotel.

[astro]

I thought the interesting quote was this one:

The property is large enough to support an 800- to 900-room hotel with meeting space, said Lou Plasencia, chief executive officer of the Plasencia Group Inc., consultants to the hotel industry. Real estate, not the team, was the driving force to purchase the Lightning, the St. Pete Times Forum and the surrounding land, he said.

Who is this guy and does he actually have a relationship with the Lightning?

Wasn't this the case when PS&E bought the team? They wanted the Ice Palace and the surrounding real estate.

[RSchmitz]

When OK hockey purchased the Lightning they also said that they were going to develop the area, so this doesn't come as a surprise. The ownership group also consists of some leading developers, although this is the first time I have heard that the primary reason was to develop the sorrounding area.

[WaiverWire]

When OK hockey purchased the Lightning they also said that they were going to develop the area, so this doesn't come as a surprise. The ownership group also consists of some leading developers, although this is the first time I have heard that the primary reason was to develop the sorrounding area.

Exactly, and with Barrie being a developer some type of development was expected.

[the_narrow_way]

Man, I hope someone finally develops the area. There should not be block after block of fugly dirt lots full of debris and weeds.

[pete]

Exactly, and with Barrie being a developer some type of development was expected.

And if he can find a way to slaughter a few Manatee calfs in the process, I'm sure he'll work that in too.

Developers are, generally, not nice people.

[Netminder]

I thought the interesting quote was this one:

Real estate, not the team, was the driving force to purchase the Lightning, the St. Pete Times Forum and the surrounding land, he said.


And this would come as a Big Shock to Who?:noidea:

[jaydeedub]

They should (need) to build an entirely new convention center than the one they have wedged into that corner. Bad location right there. They should try to aquire the land further down channel side past the Aquarium There's mostly parking lots there now, and it's a larger strip of land. So if they needed to expand they could along the water.

That area of land reminds me a bunch of the area that the San Diego convention center is built on, and they expanded it in 01-02. That area is now is beautiful and a revamped part of the city. Though I do understand San Diego's much bigger than Tampa, I still think Tampa needs a much larger one than they have.

Where's the 5.5 acres that came with the team? Is that the grassy field between St. Pete Forum Dr and Beneficial Dr? They haven't mentioned plans for that yet either huh? And I thought there was that, what is it...An Embassy Suites hotel connected to the convention center with a cat walk?

I think the city ends up with a good deal with these guys as owners, they want to build a great team and develop the land down there too. And who owns all those lots of dirt parking down there?! Something needs to be done there also!

[Kowalski]

Can't wait to see what these two guys come up with. I think a hotel as well as some shopping/restaurants could help fill up the forum on game nights.

[Avery86]

Unless this Plasencia guy is some shadow investor in the group, I can't find anything that puts him in relation to the ownership group.

Kind of ballsy to come out and say the primary point of the team being bought was the real estate when as far as anyone can tell, he's not even associated with the group. And if he is one of those shadow investors, why would he out himself like this?

Odd.

[WaiverWire]

Maybe they dangled this as a bonus like old man Hugh tried to do with Doug Williams:ohmy:

[Hoek]

Whatever makes that streetcar not so depressingly empty after games is good by me.

[aapbolt]

Of course they want to develop the land and they should. thankfully there are no trees for chainsaw charlie to go after. However, the property itself is well worth developing and if they like the idea of a hotel then so be it. what they really need down there is mid-range housing either condos or apartments to attract more people to live in the downtown area. there are only so many people who can afford high end housing, but if the costs can be met for mid-range they could make a fortune developing the area to the north of channelside for those people, then develop the shops and commercial stuf on their property. Downtown needs people living there not just attractions.

[jaydeedub]

I was "walking" around on google maps street view and saw that the tract of grass between the forum and the water is now getting developed into the Tampa Bay History Center! Yeppie! Should be cool. Suppose to open in December for my birthday.

So I'm guessing the 5.5 acres of land next to the forum they're talking about is just the parking garage and parking lot next to that? Gee I thought it was something more than that. But suppose it would be well worth it to build over the parking lot. They could certainly fit a large hotel on that spot and with the parking garage already conveniently there....

It may prove hard to build mid-range housing downtown. low-upper range is the closet they may come. It's just that that area is up and coming, and it is downtown. It's hard to find a downtown with decent housing for a decent price. Especially when it's built new. The cheapest I've found (looking for fun!) was Victory Lofts for 160,000. I'll take my 4 bedroom house over that thanks!! Most one bedrooms are mid-200 and it keeps going up from there. I can't imagine what these price's would have inflated too during the housing boom a couple of years ago.

For anyone interested in moving downtown, here's some places! (http://www.sharpemortgage.com/subpages/tampa/downtown/index.html)

[RSchmitz]

And if he can find a way to slaughter a few Manatee calfs in the process, I'm sure he'll work that in too.

Developers are, generally, not nice people.

Your not getting all worked up over this are you Pete?

[aapbolt]

You are right Jay and that is part of the problem. right now building costs are low because no one is working and they might be able to build like high mid range apartments or something to that extent to attract more people to the downtown area. they need people to facilitate growth and there are more people in the mid-range- eg singles than in the upper ranges. yeah I want to keep my house too which is why I do not live downtown. However, if I was single I would look downtown or in Ybor for the right place to live.

[Sotnos]

Haven't looked at the major papers yet today, but found this in the TBT:

Coming soon near the Times Forum: hotels?
Paul Catoe, the boss of Hillsborough’s tourism marketing agency, created a buzz Tuesday when he said the Bolts owners told him they wanted to construct a hotel on a portion of property near the Tampa Convention Center. He later dismissed their interest as chit-chat at a reception.
The team released a statement that owners were “excited and enthused’’ about development opportunities for the 5.5 acres but “need to carefully look at the various options’’ before deciding anything.

They also included a small shot of the Forum from the water where you can see the land in question. I think it's to the building's left, someone correct me if I'm wrong.
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/3681/forumvf3.jpg

[WaiverWire]

You are right. It is the property to the left. The land is used as parking lot and the Storms practice field.

[ThorBolt]

I think the city ends up with a good deal with these guys as owners, they want to build a great team and develop the land down there too. And who owns all those lots of dirt parking down there?! Something needs to be done there also!

Jay you can always check on who the owner of record on a piece of property in Hillsborough County is by checking on one of two web sites.

The first is the Tax Collector's web site at http://www.hillstax.org/. All you need is to go to the property tax pages and do a search on the address in question. The site will return a myriad amount of information. You, however, in this instance will be looking for the owner name which you can see by going to the detail screen.

The other site is the Property Appraiser's web site at http://www.hcpafl.org/www/index.shtml. This page will require you to do a little more searching for the information. At that site you would go to the the property records search page to look for that information.

The only drawback is in that if the land is owned by a development firm or a company you will see the company name as owner and more research would have to be done to discover who owns/runs the company.

[WaiverWire]

If it lists a company's name then try www.sunbiz.org and click on document search. When the window opens click on "search by name" and enter the company's name. You will be able to see who the major office holders are of the company.

[Sotnos]

Must say, when I looked at the Property Appraiser's site (a while ago), the only thing that was listed under PS&E or anything Lightning related was the smaller VIP lot (the paved one across the side street), they must have had the other, larger property under some strange name. I'll have to play around with it again.

[sandwichestime]

Jay you can always check on who the owner of record on a piece of property in Hillsborough County is by checking on one of two web sites.

The first is the Tax Collector's web site at http://www.hillstax.org/. All you need is to go to the property tax pages and do a search on the address in question. The site will return a myriad amount of information. You, however, in this instance will be looking for the owner name which you can see by going to the detail screen.

The other site is the Property Appraiser's web site at http://www.hcpafl.org/www/index.shtml. This page will require you to do a little more searching for the information. At that site you would go to the the property records search page to look for that information.

The only drawback is in that if the land is owned by a development firm or a company you will see the company name as owner and more research would have to be done to discover who owns/runs the company.

o hey, just found out where lecavalier lives, time to order those night vision goggles