How a small Florida city thinks big

A suburban city that never had a center moves forward with a downtown. For more than three years, Temple Terrace, Florida, on the northeast edge of Tampa, has been preparing for what Ralph Bosek regards as the municipality’s one big chance to create a mixed-use, medium-density, walkable town center. In April, the 23,000-population city will deliver requests for proposals to the three developers that have been selected as finalists for a 51-acre downtown project: Unicorp National Developments Inc., based in Orlando; Downtown Renaissance Alliance, in Miami Beach; and the Tampa office of Trammell Crow. Bosek, the city’s redevelopment director, says he has focused his strategy on how a city with no experience in new urban downtown redevelopment “can get into the big leagues quickly without making major errors that would cost us down the road.” He observes, “When you’re a small community with limited resources, the question is ‘how do you match up with smart, savvy developers?’” For guidance, Bosek has turned to the National Capital Development Corporation (NCDC), which has overseen many development projects in the Washington region. “They are allowing us to collaborate with them. We’re using their RFQ and RFP documents and their contract documents [with modifications],” Bosek says. “They’re helping us keep out of some of the holes they’ve fallen into over the years.” NCDC, he says, has completed or planned 20 projects, giving the organization a broad base of experience — useful for a small city attempting to create a center that would include a new City Hall, a performing arts space, townhouses, lofts, and offices. Last year, Temple Terrace had Torti Gallas & Partners of Silver Spring, Maryland, draw up a master plan for the site and surrounding parcels (totaling 225 acres) and prepare a form-based code, zoning overlays, and a streamlined permit process that can be used by developers adhering to the master plan. “The city has spent more than $20 million over the last three and a half years aggregating” 35 acres of the 51-acre site, Bosek says. The redevelopment will replace a failed shopping center at a major intersection. Three teams with new urban experience The three development teams that the City Council chose as finalists all have experience in creating mixed-use centers. Unicorp has been developing part of Baldwin Park in Orlando (see July-Aug. 2004 New Urban News), and is constructing a town center in Altamonte Springs, Florida. Unicorp is also involved in a town center being planned in Casselberry, Florida. Downtown Renaissance Alliance, a partnership of LNR Property Corp. and Lennar Homes, is employing Cooper Carry Architects, which has worked on mixed-use developments such as Mizner Park in Boca Raton and Bethesda Row in Bethesda, Maryland. Trammell Crow and its subsidiary, High Street Residential, based in Dallas, have worked on mixed-use centers across much of the nation. Trammell Crow’s Tampa office, under Robert Abberger, proposes to join forces with High Street Residential to carry out the project in Temple Terrace. “We hope by September first to have a signed development agreement,” Bosek says. Construction on the $300 million project, which includes 900 multifamily units and will have an average density of not more than 25 units per acre, is expected to begin in the second half of 2006. Bosek notes that large firms have shown increasing interest in such projects. “Infill work is complex,” he says, “and it is going to become a bigger and bigger enterprise.” u