Construction picking up speed at Midtown Tampa

TAMPA — The pace of construction is picking up on the 22 acres at Midtown Tampa.

“This site changes on a daily basis,” said Nick Haines, the chief executive officer of the Bromley Companies of New York, the master developer and owner of the $550 million project. “I was here yesterday, and that garage was two floors, and now they’re going up three stories, literally in 24 hours.”

As Haines spoke Wednesday morning, a demolition claw mounted on a trackhoe smashed into the old Men’s Wearhouse at the northeastern corner of N Dale Mabry Highway and W Cypress Street, just south of Interstate 275.

The store moved out of the building on Aug. 11, re-opening the next day in a new home on the southeastern corner of Dale Mabry and Cypress. It was the last remnant of a hodgepodge of decades-old retail, industrial and office buildings that were on the site.

The first phase of the project, about $350 million worths, is designed to bring together residential, office, hotel, restaurant, retail, fitness and event space to foster an ever-unfolding cross-pollination of activity. Already, brown steel girders frame the base of a dual-branded Aloft and Element Hotel. Next to that, concrete pillars are rising for nearly 400 apartments by Crescent Communities.

“It is an incredible logistics and coordination job,” Haines said. “We have four different general contractors on the site.”

The former Men’s Wearhouse property will become Midtown One, a 7-story office building with retail at its base. Bromley’s co-developer on the $72 million Midtown One project is Highwoods Properties, a real estate investment trust headquartered in Raleigh N.C., which will own an 80 percent interest in the 150,000-square-foot office building that has been certified as meeting energy efficiency standards.

Next door will be the Tampa Bay area’s largest Whole Foods Market. Drivers on Dale Mabry should see construction begin on both in October.

The entire first phase is scheduled to open by early 2021, in time for the Super Bowl’s return to Tampa. Three months after the start of vertical construction, Haines said the project is on budget and a little ahead of schedule.

“We’re working on Saturdays, we’re working late,” he said. “We’re really moving fast, but, again, I think we have a great team here, and everyone’s working really well."

Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times