Redeveloped Hyde Park Village could become signature urban district for Tampa

Courtesy of WS Development

The redevelopment of Hyde Park Village could transform the property into the kind of signature urban district that attracts people from well outside of Tampa’s city limits.

WS Development, which has owned the property for just more than a year, shared its early-stage plans with the Tampa Bay Business Journal on Tuesday. The plans will likely change as WS goes through the public process — WS will file plans with the city in the next one to two months — but the overarching theme is a pedestrian-friendly district with highly visible storefronts.

If brought to fruition, those plans could attract cutting-edge retail, dining and entertainment concepts and become a regional shopping destination — think the Gulch in Nashville or Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood. Those types of neighborhoods help build a sense of place in a city and attract a Millennial workforce, thought to prefer urban environments and local shops and restaurants.

Lou Masiello, vice president of development, said WS will court a variety of national, regional and local concepts for the property that jibe with the overall feel of Hyde Park. The conceptual renderings WS put together include the types of tenants they’ll target, like Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, an artisan ice cream maker with a cult following and a handful of storefronts nationwide, or Aesop, a luxury skincare brand.

Other than the mostly vacant H building — across the street from Piquant Epicure & Cuisine — the other buildings will remain open during construction, and Masiello said WS would also do buildout for new retailers concurrent with renovating the facades.

There’s a dearth of quality retail space in the Bay region’s hottest areas — and especially in South Tampa. It’s a dynamic that keeps retailers and restaurants from expanding here, because they aren’t willing to settle for a second-tier location. It’s a dynamic the TBBJ explored in early October, and one that Masiello said he hears about regularly from retailers.

“There’s a whole host of tenants that would like to do business in Tampa,” Masiello said Tuesday. “Many are already familiar and have looked at it, but haven’t yet seen an environment that makes sense for their brand.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2014/10/14/redeveloped-hyde-park-village-could-become.html