Buyer choice in Tampa

Two projects show the future of production-built New UrbanismWest Park Village and Longleaf — about 15 miles apart in the Tampa/St. Petersburg region — are two of a new generation of traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs). Both started construction in the late 1990s, giving Tampa homebuyers and renters two sizable projects that fit within new urban guidelines. TND competition is still relatively rare in a metro area: West Park Village and Longleaf are more affordable than many TNDs including Celebration, just an hour’s drive from Tampa. West Park Village, planned by RTKL and developed by Terrabrook, has met great financial and market success. The single homes and townhouses sold out almost a year earlier than expected, and at higher lot and unit prices than predicted. Home sales averaged 160/year; in addition, 340 apartment units and 42,000 square feet of commercial have been leased. Another 350 apartments are under construction with about 500 more to follow. The urban design and architecture of West Park Village were based directly on Hyde Park — a classic, much-coveted Tampa neighborhood built from 1900 to 1930. Street sections — including curb to curb width, distance from sidewalk to curb, sidewalk width, and house setbacks — were copied directly from Hyde Park, says Brian Sewell, project manager at Terrabrook. “This is one thing I learned from going to New Urbanism seminars,” says Sewell: “Don’t try to create something that has never been done successfully, but take something that has been done successfully, and pattern your community on its best elements.” Following a good model yielded benefits. West Park Village’s streets are 28 feet wide with parking on both sides, and have unusually wide sidewalks (six feet). This combination creates a highly walkable environment, according to West Park Village resident Ray Chiaramonte, who is a Hillsborough County planner and a former resident of Celebration. “West Park Village is not as big as Celebration, and not as complete on its own, but people walk around more in West Park Village, at least the residents do — Celebration has a lot of tourist traffic,” Chiaramonte says. “West Park Village is more compact, and the sidewalks are wider. You can walk three abreast. It has similar parks and squares (as Celebration), and the downtown is more oriented to residents than tourists.” The downtown includes a regional real estate office, a dentist, a Starbucks, an antique store, a dry cleaner, a day salon, a YMCA Express (includes a small gym and space for classes), two restaurants, an ice cream parlor, a Sylvan Learning Center, and other retailers. It has pedestrian life even on weekdays, and is quite crowded on weekends. Convincing higher ups The 150-acre West Park Village is the last development parcel of Westchase, the best-selling master- planned community in the Tampa Bay area for the previous seven years. “Everybody — the big builders and my bosses included — said ‘why change?’ We had to justify the change, and to show that it made economic sense,” reports Sewell. He was able to show that, with higher densities allowed for TND, the financial return would be greater than for a conventional project. “As it turned out, we did much better than expected, so there is no question that what we built has had a higher return” than the projected return from a conventional development on the site. Like many TNDs, West Park Village met with slow sales at the start. “People didn’t understand the program. We had a big, bald prairie to start with, and not much to show — no way to demonstrate the flavor of the community. Once we got a street scene complete with a park and a community center, it just took off.” Located within a larger existing master-planned community by the same developer, West Park Village offers a good land yield comparison with a conventional project. The smallest townhouse lots (17 by 80 feet) sold for $25,000, the same price as lots four times as large (50 by 110 feet) in Westchase. Fifty-foot-wide lots in West Park Village sold in the mid 50s, about $20,000 more than same size lots in Westchase. Initially, West Park Village was quite affordable, with 1,100-square-foot townhouses starting at $110,000. Most homes were in the range of $175,000 to $250,000, with custom homes going up to a half million. Prices have escalated in the last three years, for both resales and new homes. One of the least expensive townhouses was listed recently for resale for $175,000, for example, a rise of $65,000 over the original sale price. Sewell has noted a change in attitude among the community’s builders — Morrison Homes, David Weekley Homes, Nohl Crest Homes, Westfield Homes, and Inland Homes. “The builders’ first reaction was: this is more expensive; we’re going to have to pay more,” he says. “But we also told them that there are areas where TND is less expensive. That was the paradigm shift. In the end, the builders were saying that this is one of the highest margin deals that they have ever done. Does that mean that we (Terrabrook) left money on the table? What I say is that we all took a risk doing something different, and we were all rewarded with higher returns.” According to press reports and New Urban News interviews, residents of West Park Village are highly satisfied, giving strong marks to the social atmosphere and walkability. Terrabrook, one of the nation’s largest developers, is planning to build more TNDs, both in the Tampa area and in other parts of the country. Longleaf sales, codes, and social life Longleaf, a 568-acre, 1,400-unit project in New Port Richey (northwest of Tampa), is designed as four villages by planner Geoffrey Ferrell. Sales are now up to 70 to 80 homes per year, with more than 100 units completed to date. Longleaf has had a tougher job getting sales momentum than West Park Village, for three reasons. The project is twice the distance from downtown Tampa, it is not part of a larger master-planned community with strong prior sales momentum, and the builders are smaller firms with less extensive marketing programs. Codeveloper Frank Starkey has a goal to reach of 120 sales/year — and he says that means getting some builders involved who are not local. “I’ve been talking to three or four national builders about coming into Longleaf,” he explains. “And I feel this will help with the marketing and selling of the units. We just need somebody to take the homes down quicker.” Single homes start at $142,000 for about 1,400 square feet. Starkey sees a dramatic difference in the current attitudes of production builders, compared to 1999. “It’s amazing how differently national builders are approaching a TND now,” he says. “They seem to understand and appreciate the reasons behind the design code.” The Longleaf code requires raised first floor elevations, 8-foot-deep porches along at least 40 percent of the lot frontage, vertical window and column spacing, and built-to lines enforced in front and on one side of each house. Build-to lines maintain a precise street wall (as opposed to setbacks, which only tell builders where they cannot build, not where they must build). Privacy side manners, which dictate the fenestration and details adjacent to a neighbor’s sideyard, are strictly maintained. Landscape codes require hedges or picket fences at property lines. The level of community connectedness has surprised Starkey. “We always believed in the social engineering aspects of TND, but social activity has exceeded our expectations. There have been more people getting to know their neighbors, spontaneous games of football on the village green, kids hanging out together, and neighbors helping each other out than we expected.” A focal point for social activity has been the town hall, which is a community building with pool and other amenities designed to look like and function as a civic building. The mixed-use town center, still on the drawing board, will greatly add to the community feel. The first 18,000-square-foot building will have six small storefronts under ten second- and third-floor apartments. Starkey is talking to a handful of tenants, including a restaurant, bakery, general store, and hair salon. The interest on the part of retail/service tenants is surprising, Starkey says. “We expected the first two town center buildings would be offices — we didn’t think there would be any demand for retail or restaurants until Starkey Boulevard was completed.” Starkey Boulevard is a planned arterial that will move the through traffic directly by the town center. Completion of that road will also likely spur the construction of an elementary school, he adds. In the interim, a private preschool is slated to open in July, 2002. Longleaf recently received a first place award in the development category from the Tampa Bay Regional Council.