West End developer seeks partner

Over the last five years, Tampa developer Ken Morin has visualized an urban infill development just west of downtown that would include 550 apartments, 340 condominiums, at least 60 townhouses and 25,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space.

Part of the ambitious West End project has been completed where aging warehouses stood before, while more vacant land awaits nearby. Despite the housing bust and a credit freeze on commercial development, Morin is determined to finish — and now he's seeking a national institutional investor to help.

Morin is working with the Tampa office of Marcus & Millichap to find a 10% partner who will take on a 10% equity stake in the project, thereby allowing him to seek construction financing on the balance of the $53.5 million project on 2.5 acres. The 306-unit luxury apartment complex, currently called the Fremont, will include a parking garage and a rooftop deck offering views of the city skyline and Tampa Bay.

“We've got eight city blocks. We want to keep moving forward,” Morin tells Coffee Talk. “It may be time to get back out there.”

Morin now has more reasons to be optimistic about the completion of West End. Besides the prospect of building student housing geared to the nearby University of Tampa, there is a strong possibility that a proposed light-rail line will be built on existing tracks just a few blocks away.

“It's a great project in a great neighborhood, and it's needed,” Morin says. “Everything that the future holds, this property will represent. We just want to stay in the game and keep on swinging.”

Morin has had prior success with redevelopment projects in Tampa over the last two decades. He turned the former headquarters of Walter Industries Inc. at Dale Mabry Highway and Interstate 275 into Walter's Crossing shopping center. Further south, he replaced the Tampa Jai-Alai fronton near MacDill Air Force Base with Sam's Club and The Home Depot. Other local projects include AMC Veterans 24, Hillsborough Square Shopping Center and Suncoast Crossings in Pasco County.

West End's first development phase, the 249-unit Vintage Lofts, was purchased by UDR Inc. for $47.3 million two years ago. Asking rents at the apartments range from $1,029 to $2,852 monthly for one to three bedrooms.