PUBLICATION: Tampa Bay Business Journal
TITLE: Exclusive: Tampa’s Loci Capital strikes redevelopment deal with Tampa Heights preschool
AUTHOR: By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer – Real Estate Editor, Tampa Bay Business Journal
DATE: Jul 27, 2022
ARTICLE:
A Tampa real estate developer has struck a deal with the city’s oldest preschool, making way for a new mixed-use development on the preschool’s property.
Loci Capital is under contract to acquire the 2.7-acre parcel at 1505 N. Florida Ave., which has been home to A Brighter Community Inc. for 70 of the school’s 100 years of existence. A restriction was placed on the property in the 1950s that it would be used as a school or Rotary Club of Tampa Inc. would take ownership of it. Rotary Club has agreed to ease the deed restriction as long as the school opens elsewhere in the city, and a portion of the proceeds from the sale will be used to relocate the school.
The property is bound by East Henderson Avenue to the north, North Morgan Street to the east, East Estelle Street to the south and North Florida Avenue to the west. Beyond the preschool, there are office buildings, a service and repair shop, a warehouse and surface parking on the site.
In the preschool’s place, Loci Capital envisions 490 multifamily units and 15,000 square feet of retail space along North Florida Avenue. The units will be built in two seven-story towers connected by a sky bridge over Marion Street.
“This deal is a great win for all the parties involved, particularly A Brighter Community, which can now ensure that their century-old mission of serving the community may continue for generations to come,” Patton Chillura of Loci Capital said in a statement.
The developer is also making a “generous gift” to the Rotary Club of Tampa Foundation. The acquisition is expected to close in February 2023, and the preschool will operate at the location until its move is complete.
The deal will not affect the school year, board president Holly Wachman said in a statement.
“This sale will allow us to expand our reach of services and programming to a greater number of children and parents in our community,” Wachman said.
The project is Loci’s second development along North Florida Avenue.
Read more at: https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2022/08/05/tampa-growth-new-projects.html
