Imagine living in one of 15 approximately 4,000-square-foot homes stacked on top of each other with no shared walls and unobstructed views of Bayshore Boulevard and Hillsborough Bay. Add in private elevators, valet parking to your own enclosed garage on site, and a swimming pool with your own poolside cabana and shared kitchen space. And just a 10-minute drive to downtown.

The $40 million construction project is situated at 2619 Bayshore Boulevard, between Bay to Bay Boulevard and Howard Avenue, next to Fred Ball Park and the Bayshore Diplomat condo building. Units are listed for pre-construction sale starting at $2.3 million. A 3-story penthouse unit spanning 7,900-square-feet is expected to sell for more than $5 million. Developed by Taub Entities of Tampa, designed by St. Petersburg architect Tim Clemmons of Place Architects, and built by Plaza Construction out of New York, The Sanctuary at Alexandra Place now under construction has an expected completion date in 2020. The Taubs also developed a luxury condo tower in St. Petersburg called Bliss. That 18-story, 29-unit building just off Beach Drive was completed last year.

Managing Director Todd Fultz in Plaza's Tampa office says the New York-based firm chose to open an office in downtown Tampa last year because the Tampa Bay Area is seen as a rapidly growing market with huge potential for investors and construction. Other design projects by Clemmons and Place Architects include Armature Works in Tampa, and The Salvador condos and the Morean Arts Center in St. Pete.

"We are on the verge of being the city we have aspired to be,'' Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said in his welcoming remarks at an official ground-breaking ceremony on March 14 attended by local dignitaries and neighbors. Buckhorn leaves office in May after serving two terms. The next 10 years, Buckhorn predicts, will firmly establish West Central Florida's largest city as the place everyone wants to be.

See a virtual reality video of The Sanctuary.

Craig’s Take:
There are several things that make this condo building unique. First, there are only 15 units in the entire building. This fact makes the building incredibly exclusive, offering unparalleled privacy. Second is the size of the floor plans. The floor plans start at 3,884 heated sqft. There isn’t any building currently along Bayshore or anywhere in South Tampa, Channelside, Harbour Island or Downtown where the residences start at 3,884 heated sqft. Third, this building is unique because buyers can combine units on the 10^th and 11^th floors. Combining units would allow a prospective buyer to combine units for 7,435 heated sqft. offering 5-bedrooms, 2 den/offices with 5.5 baths and 4 separate terraces. There is no other condo building, new or old, that offers condo residences of this size.
 
If you were to ask me which building in Tampa Bay The Sanctuary most reminds me of it would be The Tuscany by the Sea which is on Indian Shores. The reason it reminds me of that building is the size of the residences and how few there are.  Tuscany by the Sea only has 12 units; each is approximately 5,400 heated sqft.   That building is incredibly quiet except for major holidays. The number of owners who live in the condo year-round fluctuates between only 3 to 5 depending upon the year. Most of the owners at Tuscany own 3-4 other homes around the world and the frequency in which they use this condo is rare. While I do expect to see some of that at The Sanctuary, I expect more of these owners to live in the condo year-round.
 
I commend the developer for seeing a need in the Tampa market for a building that offers very exclusive condo residences with large square footage and first-class amenities and concierge. This building is a first of its kind in Tampa in the last 20 years and I believe it will be well received by the market. The developer’s intention is to cater to two types of buyers. The local buyer is most likely from the Baby Boomer generation who are empty nesters and looking to downsize from their 5,000-10,000 sqft estate home. They are looking to enjoy the maintenance-free lifestyle this type of living offers. They are tired of dealing with dozens of vendors required to maintain such an estate. They also want the flexibility to lock-up and travel when they wish. They are also very attracted to the walkable lifestyle. I have seen the older generation begin to embrace the walkable lifestyle. The second buyer is an entrepreneur, CEO type who lives in Tampa and wants a condo offering these rarely seen features, looking to live the condo lifestyle as mentioned above but doesn’t want to sacrifice the square footage like you would with most condo buildings.

My advice is to act quickly as there are only 3 units left! 

Turn the corner in Forbici Modern Italian and it feels like an entirely different restaurant. The bar area, founder Jeff Gigante says, is "whimsical" and "really the energy source of the restaurant, where the vibe comes from." The dining area is industrial chic, meant to feel like it's "been open for 50 years" on day one. "The emphasis on this whole concept is about sharing and socializing and true hospitality," Gigante said. Near the back of the restaurant is the "ancestor table," a large table that sits beneath a gallery of family photos — Gigante's first pizza joint that opened in Tallahassee in 1990; his mother as a majorette; wedding photos from his and other partners' parents.

Forbici opened June 9th at 1633 W. Snow Ave. in Hyde Park Village, with hours from 11 a.m. to midnight. Roman-style pizza is the focus, but the menu is wide-ranging, with salads, pastas, main plates and grain bowls. A half-size of all pasta dishes can be ordered as an appetizer; Gigante, the plant based fan favorite the Impossible Burger, has also worked that into the menu in meatballs and bolognese.

Startup costs, Gigante said, are just north of $2 million. It's been a long road for Gigante, a partner and founder in Tampa's Ciccio Restaurant Group who struck out on his own with Forbici. CRG partners James Lanza and Luis Flores are investors in Forbici, but Forbici is the first concept under Gigante's own Gigante Hospitality Group. He has transitioned to a more passive role in CRG, as an investor and member of the board. CRG first announced plans for the space — which was previously home to French restaurant Piquant — in May 2017, when it said it would become a BetterByrd location there. In April 2018, Gigante revealed that he would be pursuing Forbici in the 6,000-square-foot endcap.

In the coming weeks, Forbici's grab-and-go counterpart, Slice Joynt, will open to the public, making it easier for diners to take its pizza, sandwiches and gelato to-go or order via Uber Eats. "I think we’re doing this out of the sheer passion and love we all have together for this business," Gigante said. "I’m confident that the profits will be there for the investors and obviously for myself, but outside of that, the joy of being together and having people come and gather around our tables is really our ‘why.’"

The plan to transform University Mall on Fowler Avenue into a research village is beginning to take shape with a new lease agreement to house USF’s Institute of Applied Engineering.The Institute will move into a fledgling tech hub that already attracts networking events and community gatherings to a central portion of the mall as vacant department stores are now being converted into office, retail, and entertainment space.

The transformation of the area surrounding the mall into what’s now being called the Uptown District has been slowly unfolding for almost a decade.This renovation project to spur development and end blight in the long-neglected surrounding neighborhoods is being led by !p (better known as the Tampa Innovation Alliance) and largely funded by public-private partnerships, including government funding, and resources from the University of South Florida, Moffitt Cancer Center, the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, Busch Gardens, and AdventHealth Tampa.

The Uptown District covers 19 square miles bordered by Bearss Avenue to the north, Busch Boulevard to the south and Interstates 75 and 275 to the east and west. And while there are many components to the sprawling innovation district, !p Executive Director Mark Sharpe says the nexus of the entire region is the property occupied by University Mall, which sits on Fowler Avenue near 22nd Street. “The mall is going to become a mixed-use live-work-play development with medical research, yet also serve as an entertainment hub,” Sharpe says. “We’ll have restaurants and shops, but we’ll also have Class-A offices. And then we’re looking at the two lakes just to the north of the mall, and we envision those lakes being cleaned up, lit with lights, and the construction of a boardwalk that would take you between the development at the mall and the [James A. Haley] VA hospital. We envision people living along those lakes, so you’d have student housing perhaps, professional housing, and then variances for hotels as well.” 

“That piece of property at University Mall will become ground zero for the emergence of an innovation district that we’ve been planning for, I’d say, 10 years now,” Sharpe says. “There’s a lot of pieces that are connected to this, a story that we’re starting to tell.”

In February 2019, demolition began on the segment that once housed JCPenney, B. Dalton Bookseller, Old Navy, and Ruby Tuesday, among other retailers over 40 years. By the time this multifaceted, multi-year redevelopment project is complete, it will look nothing like the former mall. 
 

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