Tampa Commercial Real Estate | Florida Commercial Property

I thought my head was going to pop on Wednesday morning when I picked up the St Pete Times and read an article by Steve Huettel referencing travel and entertainment expenses of Tampa International Airport’s new Executive Director Joe Lopano.  In Lopano’s very short tenure as the Airport Chief, there have been a series of articles from Mr Huettel and the Tampa Tribune’s Ted Jackovic about Mr Lopano, including an article about business class travel on long trips for airport executives and Lopano’s recent trip to Washington to meet with the Cuban Ambassador.

I won’t detail the many distortions in this most recent article, but as an example I checked out the room rates at the Roosevelt in New York …there are no rooms available for $239.  The least expensive I could find on a night that was actually available was $400 with tax. While that may seem trivial, it was the shameless imbalance of this article that struck me. It does not appear to be an objective piece of journalism .  Former airport director Louis Miller was used extensively as a comparison to Mr Lopano.  And while the comparisons focused on expenses, it made no effort to form a connection to revenue.

Let’s go back to business school for a moment.  If Johnny offered to give Sally a nice bike for $5, would Sally make that deal?  Of course she would.  Now, if Sally goes home and tells her family that Johnny took $5 from her, leaving out the part about how Johnny reciprocated by giving her a bike, one can understand why most listening to Sally would think that Johnny is a real cad.  In this example, Sally’s story is much the same as Mr Huettel’s..

Since Lou Miller left his post, TIA has initiated flights to Puerto Rico, an additional flight to the UK and brand new routes to Cuba.  Certainly the additional revenue generated from this traffic more than pays for a couple of hundred dollars of dinners for aviation executives.

Why does this upset me?  Well, I will go on record saying I am a big fan of Joe Lopano, at least what I have seen so far.  I like that he is a salesman for the Bay Area. I like that he had a record of success at one of the largest airports in the world.  I like that he has made efforts to cooperate with the local economic development professionals, the Chamber of Commerce and fellow transportation entities (i.e. HART).

For too long our area has been afflicted by what I call “fiefdom-ism,” the symptoms of which can be seen in the animosity between the myriad of townships, extremely disjointed economic development efforts, cannibalism in the Arts Community and downright nastiness between various factions separated by the chasm created by a body of water and three bridges.  Lopano doesn’t seem to know or care about any of these things.  He has been out knocking on doors of the Chamber and various Economic Development interests and sitting down and trying to figure out how to sell this area and our airport.

If Lopano is successful, we all benefit from the efforts.  TIA is one of the main economic pillars of this community and increased traffic at TIA means more jobs and more opportunities for businesses in our region.  Bring in more passengers and Tampa benefits.  It’s a simple formula.

I am transparent.  I want the Salesman Lopano to have confidence to do his thing….work his magic….recreate what he already did for another city.  I don’t want the “fiefdom-ism” to chew him up and spit him out before he has a chance to make it or at least have a fair shot at doing so.  And if you don’t agree with me, that is your prerogative.  But, if you agree with me and are influenced by my opinion, at least I offered you the courtesy of explaining my bias.

And Mr. Huettel? It’s OK.  You are a big fan of Louis Miller, a friend actually.  Apparently you feel that he was unfairly let go.  You can say it.  Go ahead.  It can be cathartic.  Friendships, however, should be disclosed in objective journalism.

In the meantime, Joe Lopano should be given a chance.  He is different from your friend Lou, who was a good bean counter; however, numbers had sagged in the waning years of his tenure.  Maybe it was time for a change.  But, that is not for us to decide.  What is past is in the past and Mr. Lopano is our Chief now.  Mr. Lopano wants to invest in new relationships in hope of a return…a return that will benefit many of us in this community. His style and strategy is different, but we need all of our leaders out selling right now…out investing right now.   Airline executives who are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in each new route need to know that they have aligned themselves with a partner they can trust not to hang them out to dry.  That trust is built with more than just a couple of phone calls and a get-together at the local Applebee’s.   In a couple of years, if Lopano’s way is not working, then let’s re-evaluate, but at least give the guy a chance and some room to operate his way.

Lastly, Mr. Huettel, if you feel compelled in the future to run more slam pieces on the man, at least give your readers the courtesy of disclosing your bias.

Anyone interested in contacting Steve Huettel, he can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com.  Or Graham Brink, the business editor, at brink@sptimes.com

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Attendees:        Eric Odum & Bob McDonough, City of Tampa Urban Development Manager

Date:                December 29, 2010

EO: My name is Eric Odum, I’m the principal broker at Net Lease Commercial Advisory, and welcome to the Market Minute. Today we have with us, Bob McDonough, who is the Urban Development Manager for the City of Tampa, correct?

BM: Correct, Downtown & Channel District.

EO: Downtown & the Channel District. Well, thanks so much for doing this today, Bob.

BM: Certainly.

EO: I want to talk a little bit today about some of the changes that are going on downtown….how they affect business, the commercial real estate market downtown and how all these things are coming together to help move us in a different direction or hopefully to advance us. Most noticeably, when people come downtown I hear, because I lease property all over the area, there are three things that have always been an obstacle for people coming down, one is the traffic and the traffic flow seems to be very confusing. Two, is the ticketing situation, seems to be a pretty aggressive. People are afraid they are going to get a fine, and then three, the coin meters have been a challenge.  People don’t, ….this is 2010, and people don’t walk around with pockets of coin anymore, so it’s been more of deterrence for people who really want to come downtown.  Noticeably, there’s been some changes that have been going on with regards to, …well, let’s focus first on the parking. What are some of the changes are in regards to that.

BM: Yeah, we’ve taken a quantum leap into the modern age, the city studied it for several years.  We did requests for quotations, requests for information.  We went out and spoke to other cities all across the United States about what was successful and was not successful, and we settled on a standard parking electronic meter which accepts coins as well as credit and debit cards. We had a bad model, again, we were using 1930’s …1940’s technology in our downtown which required lots of coins, and if you didn’t have the coins you got a traffic ticket. When I first moved to Tampa it was $1.00.  Currently a parking ticket is $35.00.

EO: It ruins your day.

BM: It ruins your day.  You know, the parking division at one time was 25 to 30 percent of the Parking Division’s revenue stream. It’s a bad model. We want to encourage people to come to downtown, not discourage them.

EO: And get sales tax out of it as opposed to…

BM: Well, you know what?  Actually electronic meters generate more income for you.  People are saying ‘I only had 75 cents so I put .75 in the meter.  When I’m using a debit card, I can go ahead and put in 2 hours, 3 hours, and not have to worry about it. And so, that was one of the benefits.  It also gets rid of some of the visual clutter of all those heads that were there.  It’s environmentally friendly.  We have solar collectors on it, it does not necessarily – and it’s interesting because, one of the technologies out there prints the little paper ticket.  You put it on  your dash board….Well, it does two things: one it creates more waste in the waste stream, so it’s not really environmentally friendly, and two, you have to go back to your car.  So, you parked at one end of the block. The machine is on the other end.  You get your ticket.  You have to go all the way back to your car, which if you have a lot of time that’s fine, but on a rainy day, people don’t want to do that. So, that was one of the reasons we picked the machine we did. And one of the nice benefits is, that if you park in space number 62 and you go someplace else for your meetings, …. You decide to have lunch but you really know that the time is going to run out…

EO: And you’re three blocks away…

BM: 4 blocks, 10 blocks, anywhere downtown, ….You can go to another one of the machines and add time to that space, from anywhere downtown.

EO: That’s terrific. Normally you just leave

BM: They say, “The heck with it! I’m not going to stay downtown.  I’m not going to stay for lunch. I don’t have any more coins. I’m going to leave!”  It makes it user friendly. We have…. the downtown today is not what it was 20 years ago. At 5 o’clock, the carpet was rolled up and we closed down. We have people who live here now, and because of that, to make it more attractive to live downtown, we want some more merchants and more retailers.  You have to have curbside friendly parking for those folks. That was another driver…..trying to make downtown more user friendly for the people who live here, for the people who do business here and the people who visit here.

EO: Now, for those folks that might be technologically challenged, I understand that there is going to be some sort of holiday provided (with no ticket)….. A warning system that’s given, and some instruction that’s given too, in terms of helping them through the process. So it’s not a situation where they’re going to be intimidated by the technology. …..”I’m not going to come downtown because they have those newfangled machines and I’m going to get a ticket. I just know I am!”…..So why don’t we talk a little bit about that?

BM: Well, we’ve taken a couple of steps to address that. There were handouts and flyers people put on people’s cars with simplified instructions. There are a series of guides that are walking about during this installation period. We started installing the meters around the middle of December.  We’ll finish around the middle of January.  And, during that time, there will be two things going on. We will have a series of guides where they’ll be located near these Parking machines. If people have a question or concern, the Guide can give them a quick tutorial on how to use the equipment, and secondly, if, they just say,  “You know what!?  I couldn’t figure it out,”… They get a ticket. But, the first time will be a warning ticket.

EO: So no more of those $35.00 fines, the first time.

BM: Well, the first time…The first time they get a warning and so, it behooves you then to say, “Ok, I have to pay the meter next time. I will.”  That was not the case before. The meter would click to zero and magically a meter maid would appear. You would have a $35.00 ticket. So, we’re changing the model. Right now, about 30% of the use of those meters is through coin, …..Excuse me…. through credit cards. 65% is coin, and about 35% is credit card usage. About 52% of the income generated right now is through credit cards. So it’s gaining acceptance, and again, I only have 75 cents in my pocket.  That’s all I can put in the machine, but I like to hang around and stick around downtown.  I’ve got a debit card.  I’ve got a credit card. I’ll put it in the machine.  Put 2 or 3 hours on it and enjoy myself.

EO: I’m sure it’s going to be a transitional period anyway.   I know a lot of my older clients that have been living in Tampa for their entire lives. When they come downtown, they raid the piggybank, and the first time they came down it was a little confusing. So I spoke with one of my clients, and now she’s fine. She’s says “Oh this is terrific! I don’t have to raid the piggybank anymore!” So, I think that there’s just going to be a transitional period where that debit ATM card, credit card user will probably just continue to pay.

BM: It’s a learning curve. And something that we’re going to roll out, not this year, but next year or the year after, is actually adding time to the meters using your cell phone.  Instead of having to go to the machine – you’re in a meeting. The meeting is running long – you just go ahead and punch it in the cell. The reason we didn’t initially do that is that the target audience we want to help right now for the occasional visitors to downtown, and to do a cell phone, you have to set up an account.  You have to give a deposit.  You have to put a credit card number, which unless you’re going to use a lot of times, is somewhat cumbersome.  But for the folks that are going to come downtown all the time, we’ll offer that as an opportunity later on. So it’s another leap in technology that will make it a little more user friendly for folks.

EO: Well terrific! I can assure you that the retailers that I spoke with are very happy about the situation, and I know you consulted a lot of retailers in the area trying to get the meters.

BM: They were the unhappiest about the existing situation, and I think they were probably the happiest about what’s going on. We have about 999 parking spaces downtown and they are being accommodated with this equipment.  By the end of January virtually all these parking spaces will be electronically monitored and fed through ATM.

EO: That’s awesome!

BM: Well something else, like another decision we had to make – do you take the ticket? Do you not take the ticket? Another one we looked at was using bills. Do we or do we not? There are some locales where that are very effective, but in Florida where it’s warm, and moist, the bill holds a lot of humidity and they tend to jam the machines. We didn’t want a lot of down time. We wanted something that was going to be easy to use and efficient, and so we opted out of having the bills.

EO: Well, in terms of parking, that’s not the only thing going on downtown.  That’s going to be a big, and has been a big boost to the businesses down here. I know for example the Park just opened up.  People have come to see the park, and what a phenomenal resource that is.

BM: We had 10,000 people there for Santa Fest.

EO: That is crazy!

BM: The ice skating rink set up in the park that about two weeks ago, the count was 8200 people use it, and it’s a big draw people are having a lot of fun with it.  (Note:  The season has since ended for the Rink.  The first year was a phenomenal success!)

EO: And all those people are coming and eating at the local establishments….coming in and getting more comfortable in dealing with downtown environment.

BM: Well, one of the things that we’ve done in the last three to four years is, we’ve begun to “two-way” a lot of the streets that were one-way. Now, some of these North-South, which are main arterials which feed the interstate will probably remain one way, but the East-West, which were one way,  we’ve converted to two-way again.  Visitors to downtown find it less confusing, making our downtown a friendlier place. We are right now going out with just – I think we’re going to rehire a construction manager – to begin to improve Zack Street, because that really is a main artery, pedestrian wise, for connecting the parks and the two museums to our downtown.  So, we will be widening sidewalks, narrowing traffic lanes, adding more shade structures and pieces of art, again, to make downtown a little friendlier to visitors.

EO: That’s terrific!.  So, the three things we talked about,… just to summarize, we’ve talked about people – their reservations about coming downtown with the traffic situation.  You guys are addressing that. The parking situation, in terms of the meters, the coin meters, you guys have addressed that.  And then the aggressive nature of getting ticketed…..That’s been addressed at least in near term to get people ramped up on the new system. Not to mention the park, the art, the new Art Museum,…. things are going downtown.  For people that haven’t been downtown, they really need to come down and check it out. Curtis Hixon Park is one of the most beautiful parks I’ve seen anywhere in the state of Florida.

BM: We get a lot of compliments.  What’s interesting is that you know we’re in a down economy right now, but in the near future, we’ll actually have two construction cranes. We have Metro 510, which is 120 unit work force housing project on the north end of downtown, and on the south end of downtown, the University of South Florida Health is building the CAMLS project, which is a high tech surgery training program.  They are building a 90,000 foot building and they’ll have the ground breaking on that on January 11. So into downtown…

EO: You also have the ENCORE! Project which is going in the East side of downtown

BM: We have a lot of things going on and all good news in particularly bad times.

EO: Well Bob, I really appreciate you coming out and talking to us today.  And as always, if someone needs to figure out more about the parking situation, they would contact the City of Tampa parking, or what?

BM: City website. City of Tampa website (http://www.tampagov.net/). There is an instructional on there, and if they wanted, they can print that off and bring it downtown with them. Or, call somebody from the city parking.  They’ll be happy to speak with them.

EO: Perfect, well again, we appreciate you coming out today, Bob.

BM: Thank you.

EO: Thank you.

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A $390 million project to build a toll road connecting Interstate-4 and the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway in Tampa is underway. Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos attended a groundbreaking ceremony Friday. The I-4/ Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Connector project received $105 million in stimulus funding.

Read more: I-4/Crosstown Connector breaks ground – Tampa Bay Business Journal:

Consruction on the new connector between the Crosstown Expressway and I4 is underway.  I have fielded a number of calls from investors asking if this has created any investment opportunities.  Sure.  There are always opportunites, but I am not sure the Connector creates opportunities as much as the reason for which the Connector is being built.

Allow me to explain.  Ybor City is a walking tourist, retail and entertainment “historic” district.  As the Port of Tampa has continued to expand, so too has traffic through the district.  Because the 39th Street I4 ramp was removed for the recent I4 rennovation, traffic trying to get to I4 has no where to go but up 22nd Avenue, right by the Historic Columbia Restaurant.  Suffice to say, you have to be a brave heart to stand on 22nd Street for any reason, as 40 foot container trucks and tanks of molten sulpher roll up towards the Interstate at breakneck speeds.  No, 22nd Street currently is not a hospitable environment.

With the Connector in place, truck traffic from the Port of Tampa will through-way on the Crosstown to reach I4 and totally avoid Ybor.  Now this is great for quality of life in Ybor.    22nd street will, however, remain very busy, as the entrance ramp at 22nd Street and I4 will remain intact.  I am not sure much will change in Ybor, except pedestrians on 22nd Street will no long feel as if they are standing at the epicenter of a nuclear blast.

What is changing, however, is the Port of Tampa.  Since the Port Authority has added a container port, traffic has quickly reached 100,000 containers per year.  With recent improvements complete, Tampa will be able to handle up to 1,000,000 containers per year, competing with Miami and Fort Lauderdale.  Tampa will remain a port of less than 50 feet in depth, so it will not be able to take the super-sized containers ships that major ports such as Perth Amboy and Riverside currently service, but it will be a very competitive, regional port.  Currently, it is estimated that 500,000 containers reach a final destination somewhere on the I4 corridor.  There is no reason to believe that Port Manatee and the Port of Tampa will not be the final sea destinations of most of that traffic.  Adding to the positive vibes, the widening of the Panama Canal is due to be completed sometime between 2014 and 2015, making the transport of goods to and from Eastern markets directly to Tampa a real option (actually there is a direct China route out of Tampa now).

Having personally witnessed the explosion of trade in Miami in the early 90′s, I can tell you the addition of warehouse space in the area was staggering.  Will Tampa experience that type of business development in trade?  I am not sure, but even if we received a portion of the trade that is being projected, the development and growth environment will be robust and will create plenty of economic opportunities for a community thirsting for some type of activity to augment its depressed real estate, construction and related industries. I would expect the warehouse and industrial environment in and around US 41 will look very different (and more substantial) ten years from now than what it is today.

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