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First construction on Vinik's downtown Tampa project targeted for August

 
An artist's rendering of a new medical school University of South Florida plans for downtown Tampa.
An artist's rendering of a new medical school University of South Florida plans for downtown Tampa.
Published May 26, 2015

TAMPA — In December, when Jeff Vinik unveiled his plans for a $1 billion waterfront development near Amalie Arena, the idea was to start moving dirt this summer, after the Tampa Bay Lightning's season ended.

Now, with Vinik's hockey team one win away from playing for the Stanley Cup, his development team is working behind the scenes on plans for the redevelopment, and the schedule is shaping up for a late summer start.

Organizers hope to begin work on roads, utility pipes and other infrastructure for the project in August, said Jim Shimberg, executive vice president and general counsel for the Lightning. Construction of the first buildings could begin in 2016.

Vinik's staff is tweaking the plans after consulting with Jeff Speck and David Dixon, the urban-planning stars hired to help make the project welcoming and walkable.

"We want to make sure we do this right," Shimberg said between meetings on the project last week. "We're getting close to being able to come back to (City Hall) with some refined plans."

Vinik's development team has been meeting with Tampa officials weekly, and Shimberg said everyone understands City Hall is eager to see the launch of the project, which is getting private financing from an investment fund controlled by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

"I reminded Jeff two nights ago that I have three years and 10 months left, and I would like — and he would like — to get the bulk of this out of the ground before that day comes," Mayor Bob Buckhorn said recently.

In January, City Hall pledged an estimated $15 million in downtown redevelopment funds to reimburse Vinik for extending Old Water Street, upgrading Channelside Drive, putting in new drainage pipes, burying electrical lines and adding landscaping and streetscaping.

Still to be determined: how much state funding will be available for a key piece of Vinik's project, the University of South Florida's planned new 12-story Morsani College of Medicine and USF Health Heart Institute.

Vinik is donating land at Channelside Drive and Meridian Avenue for the USF project, and the university is seeking nearly $33 million from the Legislature this year for the medical school building ($17 million) and heart institute ($15.75 million). USF hopes to see the Legislature appropriate another $40 million for the medical school building over the next two years.

Meanwhile, the Legislature ended its regular session early without coming up with a budget, and the House and Senate plans include different amounts of money, levels of detail and funding strategies for university construction projects. A three-week special session to complete the budget is scheduled to start next week.

Despite uncertainty over the state budget as a whole — a controversy driven by the debate over whether to expand Medicaid — several Hillsborough legislators say local lawmakers are on the same page about the importance of supporting USF's request.

"Our No. 1 priority," House Majority Leader Dana Young, R-Tampa, said of House members from Hillsborough.

"We will hopefully be able to work through the financial aspects of it and get it done," she told a Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce lunch last week.

"It's a tremendous opportunity for our community," state Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said at the same event. "Bob Buckhorn's probably the luckiest mayor in America right now."

A key difference that legislators will have to work out is how higher education construction projects are financed, Lee said. In the House, where USF's full request would be met, lawmakers have proposed to put about $139 million in general revenue into the state's public education capital outlay fund and then to bond that money to "magnify the number of projects they could build," he said.

"The governor's not a fan of bonding and has asked us not to do that," Lee said. "We'll have to work through that with him and with the House."

By comparison, the proposed Senate plan for university construction does not include the use of bond financing and does not, at this point, detail any individual project funding.

Still, Lee said, "I'm keenly aware of the importance that project has to our community, to what's going on in downtown, and I'll continue to work with my colleagues in the House to try to see if we can get it done. It's an important moment in history for us."

A key question, USF assistant vice president for government relations Mark Walsh said, will be what can legislators afford to do, and what funding mechanism will they use. The size of the appropriation could affect the construction schedule.

If the Legislature approves USF's full request or something close to it, construction on the medical school project could be targeted to start in the fall, he said. But if the appropriation is only a small fraction of the ask, the project might be delayed by a year.

"We have a really great delegation that seems to have bought into the project, and I'm confident that they will do whatever they're able to support the project," Walsh said. "They've been pushing really hard for it."

Lobbyist Brian Ballard, who represents Vinik's interests in Tallahassee, said he feels good about conversations he has had with the governor's office and legislators about the USF project, but he expects competition for available funding.

"There are universities and colleges all around the state that have competing projects," Ballard said. "We've got our work cut out for us, but I'm optimistic."

And yet.

"This appropriation process is unlike anything I've been through in the 25 years I've been doing this," Ballard said, "so I'm not going to take anything for granted."

Times staff writers Caitlin Johnston and Jamal Thalji contributed to this report.