City May Take Riverwalk Segment Into Its Own Hands

By LINDSAY WILKES-EDRINGTON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jun 27, 2007

TAMPA - With the future of Trump Tower Tampa uncertain, Mayor Pam Iorio has asked the Parks and Recreation Department to explore the possibility of buying the land and turning it into a park as part of the Riverwalk project.

"We want to make sure that part of the Riverwalk gets built in a timely manner," Iorio said. "The owners first have to be willing to sell and it has to be a reasonable price, but this could be a continuation of what we've already done, so it makes sense."

The city has yet to figure out how much the land on Ashley Drive would cost, Riverwalk manager Lee Hoffman said. No talks have taken place with the owner, SimDag LLC.

According to county property records, SimDag bought the land - less than a half-acre - for $16 million in 2004.

After plans for Trump Tower Tampa were announced in January 2005, developers encountered problems with the land's soil and construction costs. Now the project faces a lawsuit from Donald Trump, who seeks more than $1 million in unpaid developer fees and says he wants his name off the deal.

A SimDag spokesman could not be reached for comment, but the company issued a statement this month that says it intends to move forward with the 52-story condominium. As part of the project, SimDag promised to dedicate a 450-foot strip of land along the Hillsborough River for Riverwalk.

Even if obtaining the Trump Tower property is a long shot, Hoffman said he's excited by the possibility.

Right now, he said, there are few opportunities to add green space along the Riverwalk route, which is planned to stretch 2.4 miles along the east side of the Hillsborough River from the Channel District to Tampa Heights.

Rather than purchase the entire SimDag parcel, the city might consider buying a portion, Hoffman said.

"It's got to be enough to be worth your while, but my position would be that any green space you can get in there would be good," he said.

Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Linda Carlo said her department is exploring the possibility of getting a grant from Florida Communities Trust, which helps cities buy urban land for conservation and recreation. Those grants still would require the city to match part of the funding.

The Florida Community Trust program partially funded three other Riverwalk parks: MacDill, Fort Brooke and USF parks. Each project received grants that required the city to match 50 percent of the costs.

The maximum amount of funding the program might provide is $6.6 million.

The Riverwalk project is expected to cost about $40 million. About $16 million of that will come from public sources, and $24 million will come from private donations.

To date, five of Riverwalk's 21 segments have been completed, making up about six-tenths of a mile. It is set to be completed by October 2010.

Hoffman said he understands that because of the city's budget cuts, buying the Trump land doesn't seem like the top priority. However, if the opportunity arises and the city doesn't act, he said, similar prospects may not become available again for years.

"It's important to have a long-range view and philosophy with this," he said. "If you look at what's on the waterfront now, it changes all the time. You rarely get a chance to change it."

Reporter Lindsay Wilkes-Edrington can be reached at (813) 259-7621 or lwilkes-edrington@ tampatrib.com.