In Deciding Hyde Park's Future, Council Should Heed Past Mistakes

Published: Dec 20, 2007

The city council's indecision over what to do with Hyde Park Village comes down to this question: Which would you rather look at, a graduated eight-story condo building or vacant storefronts?

To survive, the village needs more vitality, and the plan from Wasserman Real Estate Capital - which plans to invest more than $100 million into the deal - is a measured way to make it happen.

Still, some members of Tampa City Council, led by a hand-wringing Mary Mulhern, have positioned themselves as fearful obstructionists.

The council's first vote split, 3-2, with two members not in attendance. The project needs four votes for approval, so a second vote is scheduled for tonight.

It's easy to say no, as Mulhern has quickly and stubbornly learned. It's much more difficult for leaders to find a way to say "yes" to things that may not be everything they want, but add value to a community.

To see what happens when this council says no, one need look no further than the old Woolworth's store in downtown Tampa.

The Doran Jason Group wanted to put condos where the Newberry and Woolworth buildings stand, and make the Kress building, in the middle, a lobby with office and retail space.

The developer promised to restore the old-style marquees on the two end buildings, but refused a demand that the marquees be designated "historic." The historic designation brings the city's Architectural Review Commission into the mix, and everyone knows that group brings projects to a crawl.

But council members John Dingfelder and Linda Saul-Sena insisted the marquees be designated historic and convinced their colleagues to vote with them, 6-1. "We're treating the facades as second-class citizens," Dingfelder decried.

So how does this story end? Nothing happened. The developer has put the properties up for sale and a cornerstone of downtown's revitalization effort remains a boarded-up, public eyesore. Oh, and those marquees? They continue to deteriorate.

In Hyde Park, Saul-Sena made the motion to approve the project, then later recanted and voted no, saying she was so conflicted about the decision that it made her feel sick.

There is no reason for such fretting and indecision.

The Wasserman plan does not call for gargantuan structures to loom over the village. The most contentious part of the proposal - a tiered condo tower on the block that housed Brooks Brothers - is only eight stories high for less than 5 percent of the block. The majority of the terraced roofscape would be less than four stories tall.

If Tampa wants to keep saying "no" to development ideas that don't exactly fit the character of the city as we know it today, stagnation will spread.

Empty storefronts and desolate parking garages will do nothing to support the value and experience of Hyde Park Village. They do not make the area more walkable or enticing. Rather, they give people more reason to go to International Plaza or WestShore Mall to do their shopping and dining.

We should know better this time around. Council members should give the revival of Hyde Park a confident thumbs up.