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Office towers may raise profile of Tampa's Adamo corridor

By Janet Zink, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, April 13, 2008

A Clearwater developer wants to build a 230-foot tower and a 200-foot tower on the southeast corner of Adamo Drive at 50th Street. The development will tower over the area around it.
	[Andras Allen Starr + Melton Architects]

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TAMPA — Heavy industry dominates the stretch of Adamo Drive between downtown Tampa and Brandon, but a developer wants to add two high-end office towers to the landscape.

National Properties Trust, an international company with offices in Clearwater, plans to build a 14-story, 230-foot tower and a 12-story, 200-foot tower on the southeast corner of Adamo Drive at 50th Street.

They would be the tallest structures between Tampa and Brandon, dwarfing the surrounding industrial office parks.

Suites on the top floors will have views of Tampa Bay, said Bruce Ovans, vice president of National Properties Trust.

Ground floors of the buildings will include retail. Plans also call for a seven- to nine-story parking garage.

Mark Huey, the city's manager for economic development, said the project is yet another indication that Adamo Drive is destined for "higher quality private investment."

Last year, the City Council approved plans for a 350,000-square-foot Ikea furniture store on Adamo Drive at 22nd Street.

"The Adamo corridor is going to continue to develop as a major commercial hub," Huey said.

The National Properties Trust land is already zoned for the buildings but may need approval of the Tampa City Council to exceed height restrictions, Ovans said.

The company paid $1.7-million for the 12-acre parcel in 2006, according to Hillsborough County property appraiser records.

Land clearing has already begun, and city officials are reviewing site plans for a Hess gas station on the parcel.

Ovans said construction of the office towers should begin by the end of the year.

Fran Williams, president of Kimmins Contracting Corp., which has facilities on Adamo Drive at 15th Street and on 53rd Street near the proposed office towers, said the project would be a boon for the neighborhood.

"They're pioneering that area," he said.

Williams is also president of the Adamo Corridor Property Owners Association, which represents landowners between 13th and 22nd streets. He has long advocated for redeveloping Adamo Drive from industrial uses to commercial, residential and retail.

"It's a heavy industrial area right now," he said, but he predicted that in the next decade the redevelopment already under way in downtown Tampa will spill east toward Brandon. "Adamo Drive's time has come."

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3401.