Tampa synagogue, developer revamp plans for waterfront residential tower


Congregation Rodeph Sholom and the Related Group have adjusted their plan in the hopes of convincing city leaders to approve the development.
Congregation Rodeph Sholom and the Related Group have adjusted their plan in the hopes of convincing city leaders to approve the development.
Courtesy image
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About a year after a Tampa synagogue and a Miami developer failed for a second time to win approval to convert a parking lot and preschool into a condo development, the entities are back again with a pared down plan.

Congregation Rodeph Sholom and The Related Group have submitted an updated plan to Tampa City Council that cuts the number of floors in the proposed building down to 16 from 26 and the number of units down to 38 from 42.

The original plan called for a 29-story building with 60 units.

Rodeph Sholom President Lloyd Stern says the changes are the result of a two-day mediation session with city officials about four months ago.

During the sessions, the congregation and developer adjusted the plans to address some of the concerns that led to the previous rejections. Stern believes city officials are happy with the plan and the changes will be enough to win city approval this time around.

Congregation Rodeph Sholom and The Related Group want to build a residential tower along an already-crowded Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa.
Courtesy image

The council is expected to vote on the revised proposal Jan. 28. (Agenda for a workshop and an evening meeting had yet been posted to the city's website Wednesday morning.)

“I would say there's an 80 to 85% chance that we should get it,” he says.

The tower, if approved, will be built on the synagogue’s existing preschool and parking lot on Bayshore Boulevard. The temple itself will remain.

Rodeph Shalom, which was founded in 1903, has sat along a stretch of Bayshore since 1969. Today the area includes a growing number of residential towers that have popped up over the past several years, including Altura Bayshore about a block away and The Ritz-Carlton Residences about a half mile away.

The construction is so heavy that when you look toward downtown and Hillsborough Bay from large parts of South Tampa, construction cranes seem to dot the skyline.

But Rodeph Sholom and Related have been twice rebuffed by Tampa leaders who have said the plan, as it was drawn up before, was not compatible with the surrounding neighborhood.

City Council unanimously voted against it in May 2023 and 5-2 February 2024.

The adjustments to the plan are aimed at easing those concerns, with Rodeph Sholom and Related saying the building’s size was reduced “for better integration into the surrounding community” according to an outline of the plan.

They also enhanced a landscaping buffer between the tower and neighboring properties, including the Tampa Garden Club, a vocal opponent of the project. That includes increasing the number of trees to 91 from 84 and greenspace to 35,995 square feet from 34,176 square feet.

The garden club did not respond to a request for comment on whether the changes swayed its opposition to the project.

Stern blames some of the opposition on a desire to slow growth even as Tampa sees a need for more for housing as corporations coming to the city bring employees who want more “than a $1,500 a month apartment.”

Tampa, he says, “used to be a little city that wanted to be a big city” and now that it is finally reaching its potential, needs progress.

While the sale price of the land has not been disclosed, selling a portion of its campus is a way to monetize the property in order for Rodeph Sholom to sustain itself.

“This is a matter of us preserving the only conservative synagogue — that's 120 years old — in South Tampa,” he says.

“We’re not using the money to do an amazing upgrade or anything. We're using it for an endowment so we can sustain.”

And if the plan to build the residential development is not approved? 

The congregation could sell of the entire property or take the matter to court as other developers and property owners have.

 

author

Louis Llovio

Louis Llovio is the deputy managing editor at the Business Observer. Before going to work at the Observer, the longtime business writer worked at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Maryland Daily Record and for the Baltimore Sun Media Group. He lives in Tampa.

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