Great Society: Touring the Nightlife on Soho

November 20, 2013by ThinkTank-A in For Buyers, For Sellers, South Tampa, The Good Life, Things To Do

Of all the advantages of living in South Tampa, social life is high on the list. Everyone’s happy to see some buzz finally cropping up downtown, and Ybor City still has a few worthwhile destinations, but the SoHodistrict is the real sweet spot for bars, nightclubs, pubs, lounges, and every other possible combinations of people, drinking, and music.  Here’s a quick overview of some of the best and most interesting spots on South Howard.

MacDinton’s, 405 South Howard Avenue (http://www.macdintons.com/SoHo-Tampa): What most of us are looking for in a bar is a comfortable place to unwind after work, hang out with our friends, and maybe make some new ones before heading home.  A place like MacDinton’s fits the bill, with a homey Irish pub atmosphere and a neighborly culture including frequent charity events and fun runs (Jogging and Guinness – a mysterious match).  It’s also the place to be in Tampa if you’re a soccer fan.

World of BeerSoHo, 402 South Howard Avenue (link: http://wobusa.com/locations/south-tampa): It’s a chain among one-of-a-kind neighborhood joints, but you can’t fault World of Beer’s comfortable atmosphere or its seemingly infinite variety of tap and bottled beers.  The South Tampa location features what is clearly more important to a bar even than beer – Trivia, starting at 7pm.  Watch out, though, as Wednesday’s discounts for University faculty and students might attract undesirable characters, like UT philosophy professors looking to talk Nietzche over a goblet of Tripel.  THE HORROR.

The Dubliner, 2307 West Azeele Street(link:http://thedublineririshpub.com/): It’s not as if you can have too many comfortable Irish pubs with great food. Like MacDinton’s, the Dubliner’s menu features Irish classics like Sheperd’s Pie and Fish and Chips. But the Dubliner claims the distinction of featuring an Irish Nacho Pizza, which is . . . well, you’ll have to find out for yourself.

The Green Lemon,915 South Howard Avenue–(http://www.cicciorestaurantgroup.com/restaurants/green-lemon.html) – Formerly The Lime (see what they did there?) this is mostly a restaurant, with a sprawling Mexican menu.  But they also have a huge, and surprisingly reasonably priced, tequila list.

The Kennedy (2408 West Kennedy Blvd.) andHyde Park Café (1801 W. Platt Street) (links: http://www.thekennedysoho.com/ and http://www.thehydeparkcafe.com/) – Okay, in all likelihood you’re happy that your days of Jello shots, Red Bull and vodka, and sweaty dancing with multiple anonymous partners is behind you.  But sometimes even the best grown-ups get the urge to cut loose and relive the worst/best nights of college.  With throbbing dancefloors, celebrity appearances from the likes of Lady Gaga, and parties with names like “Menage Mondays,” thesetwo clubs have your arrested development covered.  Just don’t blame me if the music sounds like robots going to the bathroom, or if that’s where you end up at the end of the night, curled into the fetal position and longing for your couch.

Mangroves, 208 South Howard Avenue (http://www.mangroves-restaurants.com/): Luckily, catching up on the nightclub scene doesn’t have to be synonymous with a barrage of cheap booze and brain-melting music. If you’ve got a yin for partying but don’t mind being able to hear yourself think, Mangroves offers a more refined nightclub/lounge experience, including some amazing food.  Whether you’re a real high roller, or just want to play one for the night, their VIP bottle service will let you keep an eye on the action from a comfy private booth.  Oh, and ladies, hopefully the classy atmosphere will help you use your better judgment on Friday nights, when you can drink all you like between 9 and 11pm for just $10.

A South Tampa Renaissance: WS Development’s Plans for Hyde Park Village

November 14, 2013by ThinkTank-A in For Buyers, South Tampa

There was big news for South Tampa just a few weeks ago when the Boston-based firm WS Development confirmed that it was buying Hyde Park Village for $45 million (link: http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2013/09/23/ws-development-confirms-purchase-of.html).  It’s great news for South Tampa for a lot of reasons, showing a huge vote of confidence in the area and opening up even more exciting possibilities.

It’s no secret that Hyde Park Village (http://hydeparkvillage.net/) has been struggling a bit, with a number of empty storefronts and buildings that are beginning to show their age (most of the current structures date from the 1980s).  WS has said they’ll be investing heavily to spruce up the place physically, as well as lining up incentives to attract new tenants, and pursuing new ideas for making Hyde Park Village more of a destination. If you’re wondering about the extent of their ambition, the new developers have taken to referring to the project as “South Tampa’s Downtown.”

Just as important as the new energy is what the purchase represents for South Tampa going forward. The $45 million purchase price represents huge growth over the $31 Million paid by MW Hyde Park LLC in 2005.  That shows that investors have tagged South Tampa, and to some extent the city as a whole, as good bets.  It’s the kind of purchase that could very well trigger other investors to follow with similar or connected projects.

The concrete details of Hyde Park Village’s future will be worked out in collaboration between the developers and current tenants, who will get a say in what they want to see.  One intriguing possibility would be resurrecting plans for condos within the development – space was cleared for them years ago, but they were put on hold during the downturn (http://tbo.com/news/business/price-tag-for-hyde-park-village-45-million-20130925/).  If those condos get built, they could be a really great place to live, within a few minute’s walk of great shopping at Anthropologie, Brooks Brothers, and Pottery Barn – not to mention all the other great offerings of South Tampa.

Flood Insurance Deregulation – The (Abstract) Good, The (Obvious) Bad, and the (All-Around) Ugly

November 14, 2013by ThinkTank-A in For Buyers, For Sellers, Legal Notes, Real Estate News

As the Biggert-Waters act of 2012 goes into effect, the tragic stories keep coming in, well, a flood –insurance quotes going from $5,126 to $36,584 in three weeks (http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-09-28/news/fl-flood-insurance-rate-hike-20130924_1_flood-prone-florida-flood-insurance-florida-flood), and people preparing to leave their homes (link: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/banking/flood-insurance-rates-could-increase-for-more-than-21000-hillsborough-homes/2143931) rather than deal with higher rates in coming years.  But is the reality of the end of flood insurance subsidies as bad as it sounds, or is it all hype?  And what does it mean for the real estate market in Florida, and South Tampa?

Passed in July of 2012, and officially the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, Biggert-Waters is probably the biggest news in the housing market since the bubble burst in 2008. It all started with the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which put the public National Flood Insurance Program $18 billion in the hole. Over the next few years, the program stayed unbalanced, and its deficit is now $24 billion. The solution was to cut the large Federal subsidies that had been keeping insurance premiums artificially low in high-risk areas – and that’s exactly what Biggert-Waters does. The consequence (which somehow even the law’s authors claim not to have realized at the time Link: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2013/09/30/306602.htm) is that premiums for millions of homeowners nationwide are going to skyrocket over the next few years – and a lot of that rise will be centered in Florida.

It’s hard to swallow now – but long-term, the end of federal subsidies is good for the economy, for homeowners, and for the South Florida housing market, for a lot of reasons.  The biggest one is this – the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the public entity providing ‘insurance of last resort’ for all these years?  It was never actually solvent – it never had the money to provide the insurance it was promising.  As State Senator Garrett Richter explains here (link: http://www.businessobserverfl.com/section/detail/insurance-promises-we-cant-keep/), a real hurricane catastrophe in Florida would have required that the state borrow to fund damage claims, leaving every state resident making huge debt payments (up to 83% of then-current Citizens premiums) for up to 30 years.  The same problems that plagued Citizens also applied to the Federal Flood Insurance program, which was actually one of the biggest Federal government liabilities this side of Social Security.

So, those in favor of fiscal responsibility should be applauding Biggert-Waters for getting rid of some of the most risky big-government subsidies around.  And ultimately, by letting people know in big, bad numbers just how risky their location is, accurate insurance rates might even save lives.  Finally, the biggest beneficiaries will be people living in lower-risk areas – such as most of South Tampa (See map of high risk areas here. http://tampabay.com/tbprojects/dcloud/dcloud-template.html?doc=799571-map-of-rising-rates-hillsborough-county).  They’ll see little or no change in rates, and their homeowners’ tax dollars won’t be going to subsidize the property of those living in higher-risk areas anymore.

But big-picture politics and abstractions about fairness aren’t much comfort to people facing quadrupling premiums in the next four or five years, and the chances of delaying the law’s biggest effects are narrowing by the day.  Despite a lot of talk about delay, neither the Federal or State legislature have identified any clear way to soften the blow (link: http://tbo.com/pinellas-county/florida-lawmakers-exploring-flood-insurance-alternatives-20131018/).

South Tampa Inventory

October 19, 2013by Candace Courter in For Buyers, For Sellers, Real Estate News, South Tampa

South Tampa’s inventory includes an array of vernacular styles. Mid-Century Modern, Spanish Revival, Coastal to Bungalow in over a dozen neighborhoods.

South Tampa Housing Market Heats Up

September 25, 2013by Candace Courter in For Buyers, For Sellers, Real Estate News, South Tampa

Bit by bit, around Florida and around the country, the tender shoots of a recovery in the housing market are pushing tentatively towards the light.  But in Tampa Bay, those shoots are already beefing up and putting down roots – and in strongholds of value including South Tampa, things are looking a little bit like Jack and the Beanstalk.

The summer has been hot in more ways than one.  Stats from Florida Realtors show that in July, single family home sales were up around 20%, while average sale prices were up 18% and inventory has plummeted 17%.  Those numbers are even more dramatic in Tampa Bay, where July saw a year-over-year price bump of 27% on average, with volume up 20%.

But as anyone moving in this market knows, the biggest impacts of the bounce are clustering in South Tampa and a few other areas just outside of downtown.  Developers are scrambling to grab land in the area south of Kennedy Blvd, and if you’re a sports fan, you might have heard that Rob Gronkowski stands to make a tidy profit off the South Tampa property he bought just a year ago.  Some guys have all the luck, huh?

Of course, these areas never lost as much value in the first place as some of the less stable areas of Tampa Bay.  I’d say there are a few factors in both the area’s stability, and its popularity as a destination for money on the rebound.  Access is an obvious one – most South Tampa addresses put you within 15 minutes of downtown.

But I’d say the root of the area’s value is more subtle.  With an abundance of lifestyle amenities on the main thoroughfares and well-tended homes in the neighborhood, South Tampa marries access with a small-town feel.  You won’t find that in the uplanned, chain-store dominated sprawl of Clearwater or Temple Terrace.  The variety – from business networking at Buddy Brew Coffee to downing a Guinness at MacDinton’s – means South Tampa has a lot to offer both young singles and professionals with growing families.  And ultimately, whatever the ups and downs of the giant, confusing financial machine that has so much sway over the real estate market, that’s what really matters – you want a great house in a place where it’s great to live.  South Tampa definitely qualifies.

The resurgence of Mid-Century Modern architecture

September 25, 2013by Candace Courter in For Buyers, For Sellers, Real Estate News

The resurgence of Mid-Century Modern architecture and how it lends itself to “Green Building” – ideal for Tampa climate:

America has had its share of enduring architectural movements, from Greek Revival to Spanish Colonial to Arts and Crafts.  Those are all styles, by the way, that describe both new and existing homes that you’ll see on the market.  For obvious reasons, architectural movements – unlike transitory fashions in clothing, for example – leave signs of that last for decades or centuries.

One of the most distinct architectural trends of the 20th century, though, is also one that has had a less prominent impact in America.  The Modernist movements in art and design probably make you think first of European names like Le Courbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe, whose minimalist buildings centered on open spaces, curtain walls, and innovative use of light.  While there are some remnants of the European modernist architects in the U.S., for instance the Eichler Homes in parts of California, naturally their work was less widespread here than back home.  Luckily, America had its very own modernists – Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie school, associated with names like Richard Neutra, William Krisel, and John Lautner, produced houses that minimized ornamentation, aimed to meld with the landscape, and made smart use of space and light.

mid-century modern home south tampa

Today, midcentury modern buildings continue to hold up as examples of some of the most beautiful architectural design anywhere.  But they’re more than just great-looking – the use of natural light, cantilevered roofs, and attention to landscape also make them some of the smartest and greenest houses ever built.  Here’s a great rundown from the architectural firm Build of 10 Forgotten Lessons of Mid-Century Design, including some decidedly ‘green’ features like roof eaves that provide shade in summer while letting in light during cold winters.

Maybe that green sensibility is why Midcentury Modern has been making such a comeback in both product design and architecture.  (Then again, the Mad Men factor doesn’t hurt, either).  South Florida has more than its share of surviving Modern homes and buildings, since the area boomed in the 1950s and 1960s when air conditioning made things a little more livable. That means Tampa Bay got hyperactive Atomic Age wonders like the Thunderbird and Bilmar Beach resorts on Treasure Island – but also more than a sprinkling of understated Prairie Modern homes, with flat lines and expansive views.

And appropriately enough, the Modern look isn’t confined to beautiful history pieces.  The lessons are being adapted to more and more new construction Modern homes in Tampa, too.  Keep an eye out, and you may find a modern new construction gem tucked in just about any corner of South Tampa!

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