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She has run Tampa's downtown marketing and advocacy agency for nearly seven years. And despite the real estate economy's slowdown, 2009 should be the best year for the urban core in her tenure.
“Despite the pause in the economy, things started in the public and private side are going to carry us into 2009 and 2010,” says Christine Burdick, president of the Tampa Downtown Partnership, a public-private initiative created to revitalize Tampa's center city area and to attract new businesses and residents.
Those things include a new art museum, the expanding riverwalk and more events.
The Lights on Tampa program will run through the Super Bowl Feb.1 In February, the city breaks ground for a children's museum near the Hillsborough River.
Following that, there is the NCAA basketball tournament and a new bike-racing event in March. The dragonboat races return in May. In mid-summer, a new park opens. In the fall, the art museum opens. The history museum recently opened.
Element, the latest high-rise apartment project, recently finished construction and has its certificate of occupancy. There are new restaurants, including Five Guys on Ashley Street in the Skypoint condo tower. Two more restaurants are opening there in the next month.
Yet downtown has not been immune to the economy. Office buildings have been hurt because of business cutbacks.
“There's no question, and we are aware, that businesses and members are feeling a pause in the economy, but the energy will come back quicker,” Burdick says. “They are in a great workplace.”
Still, Burdick, 59, who has done similar work in Chicago and Miami, does not see an increase in the number of downtown workers in 2009, which stands at about 55,000. It has been increasing every year but leveled off about 18 months ago.
Downtown office occupancy stands at about 85.3%, only 1% less than Westshore, which has outperformed downtown in attracting tenants. But that gap may widen this year because Verizon is consolidating. The company sold the One Tampa City Center office tower in downtown.
About 2,000 people live downtown and Burdick sees that number rising this year. Another residential project being completing in the next 30 to 45 days is The Slade on Meridian Street. It is 450 condos. There are contracts for sale.
The riverwalk, a paved walkway hugging the Hillsborough downtown, is about half complete and is slowly growing. The Friends of the Riverwalk, a nonprofit organization, are helping push its progress along and Mayor Iorio has been an advocate.
This month Burdick hosted about 18 other people who work for downtown associations in other cities. They were especially interested in the Riverwalk because of the way it uses a natural attraction, the Hillsborough. She took them to the new history center and Plant Park.
Part of the key to downtown's renewal has been getting creative people to design strategies, Burdick says. “They are helping us figure out solutions,” Burdick says.
Despite the political sensitivities, there's even an offer on the table to build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays, the area's professional baseball team. But the team appears to be looking more closely at Pinellas County, its current and only home. At one time, before Tropicana Field was built in St. Petersburg, there were local groups trying to build a baseball stadium in Hillsborough County.
“I know there is very good committee considering that,” Burdick says. “It is a committee of both Hillsborough and Pinellas people. There are several sites in Pinellas and one in Hillsborough. In Tampa, there's a big piece of property and big parking lots which would fit into the design. I have not heard anything new recently on this.”
Other downtowns
Burdick meets with her counterparts in St. Petersburg and Clearwater and credits them with much progress in their urban cores.
For example, Clearwater is doing a streetscaping project and has focused its efforts into bringing more retail growth downtown. St. Petersburg, like Tampa, has worked on attracting more residents, workers and events.
“In Tampa, the focus is on everything,” Burdick says. “We're looking into opportunities and the potential for retail. We like the fact that businesses and retail are grown here and are locally based, independent and locally owned. They are very unique and have a local flavor and can help attract other types of business.”
Burdick admits that downtown does need more retail businesses, such as stores and restaurants, if it wants to attract more residents. That has always been a chicken-and-egg challenge: Build stores first, or build apartments first?
There are smaller but significant venues attracting visitors, such as the Florida Museum of Photographic Art, in the ground floor of the parking tower across from the Bank of America building on Ashley and Jackson Street.
Downtown has welcomed new hotels in the past five years and another is being planned for the channel district, called Hotel Indigo.
While parking is an issue for many office tenants, there are no new plans for more parking and in fact downtown has lost some parking spaces in the past year.
“We still have an abundance of parking,” Burdick says. “Retailers would like to see more parking.”
The streetcar system downtown is getting an extension which will bring it north from the Marriott Waterside Hotel up to Whiting Street. Construction starts later this year. It is funded and should finish in 2010.
This would help get people to downtown events, which the partnership is working to expand to expose more businesses and residents to downtown.
For example, a private group is working on an outdoor project near the Tampa Convention Center called Riverfront Fest, which may include live music and food, and kick off in late spring or early summer.
A slow economy is hurting investment, but helping downtown Tampa is Florida's weather, residents looking for more urban experiences and its waterfront location.
“We're very lucky,” Burdick says.
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