Ashley Gurbal Kritzer, Reporter Tampa Bay Business Journal
The long-awaited redevelopment of The Heights — a vacant 43-acre parcel just north of Tampa’s urban core — will begin with the transformation of the historic Armature Works building.
SoHo Capital LLC on Wednesday revealed its plans for The Heights, a storied property that sits on the bend of the Hillsborough River overlooking downtown Tampa.
The 73,344-square-foot Armature Works building will be the centerpiece of the development. It will combine a 21,000-square-foot market hall with multiple event spaces in an iconic Tampa building that was once used for the storage and maintenance of the city’s streetcars.
The $16.5 million renovation of Armature Works will be paid for in cash, SoHo partners Chas Bruck and Adam Harden say, with their own money and from a small group of private investors.
“Everybody we’ve talked to — they’re extremely excited about it,” Bruck said. “Restaurateurs get it. They’re very excited that a market is coming to Tampa. Everybody sees this building as being a true destination.”
At full buildout, the Heights is slated to include more than 1,500 residential units and 640,000 square feet of commercial space with a total value of $820 million.
Mixed-use, urban infill development on the scale of The Heights is a massive undertaking. The historic rehabilitation of the Armature Works building adds an additional layer of complication — hidden challenges can lurk within the bones of old buildings, often making adaptive reuse more expensive and complex than new construction.
