South Tampa to get first large, new, Class A office building in 30 years

TAMPA — The family that developed Tampa's Sunset Isles and Beach Park Isles is planning South Tampa's first significant Class A office Space in 30 years.

The project, called Crown Tower, will include an eight-story, 102,355-square-foot building; a seven-story parking garage and a remodeling of the existing Crown Building at 3825 Henderson Boulevard.

"The market was just ready for it," said David Jacobson, who is spearheading the project with his father, Mel "Sonny" Jacobson.

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The South Tampa market currently has just 159,000 square feet of Class A space and most of the existing properties are nearly full, according to CoStar, a commercial real estate information company. Most of the premium space added in the last three decades has been in much smaller buildings.

"There's been nothing of this size and structure," Jacobson said. "Nobody (before) pulled the trigger to do it because of the lack of land. You have to put together a parcel large enough to accommodate this."

Jacobson said his family owned part of the site, which is along Henderson at the southwest corner of Dale Mabry Highway and West Morrison Avenue. The rest was acquired from Christ the King Catholic School.

A building on the site will be torn town down but the U.S. post office, St. Michael's Legal Center and a flag shop it contains will be incorporated into the new project, Jacobson said. Construction might start this fall but "could depend on capturing the right tenant," he added.

Designed by the architectural firm Lyman Davidson Dooley, Inc., Crown Center will be managed and leased by JLL, a Fortune 500 company.

The Jacobson family has been in a variety of businesses over the decades, including window manufacturing, roofing, bowling alleys and apartments. In addition to Sunset Isles and Beach Park Isles, two of Tampa's toniest neighborhoods, the family developed the Crown Building, the nearby Henderson Center and the former IBM building, now known as the Aloft Hotel in downtown Tampa.

Contact Susan Taylor Martin at smartin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8642. Follow @susanskate