by TRC_Admin | Jul 21, 2021 | Master Planning
Photo: Chris Urso, Tampa Bay Times
“City leaders have pledged it is just the beginning.
While the landscape changed for nearly everything in the last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, one Pasco County community managed to blossom, making tangible changes for its future.
City leaders have pledged it is just the beginning.
Last year, about the time of the COVID-19 lockdown, New Port Richey officials were beginning a months-long project to rebrand their community and kick off a conceptual plan for redevelopment.
Blessed with a historic downtown and the Cotee River winding through both business and residential areas, city officials knew that New Port Richey had unique attributes to allow it to experience a renaissance.
Earlier this month, Tom McGilloway, a consultant with Mahan Rykiel, presented the final report on downtown redevelopment to City Council. He described the public investments New Port Richey can make to bring significant financial dividends down the road, once private investors come aboard.
The city will dip into its own coffers, spending up to $37 million to complete its goals over the next decade, but it could see $235 million in private investment for its efforts, McGilloway said.
Public investments could include adding lanes for bicycles and motorized scooters, improvements to the facades of city-owned buildings, and adding needed shade by planting trees or constructing shade structures in public areas like Railroad Square or along city streets. Signage, more interesting pavement treatments and development of Oak Park on River Road could be other areas slated for improvement.
‘Private investment will follow public investment,’ city economic development director Charles Rudd assured council members earlier this month. But he said the city’s recent successes are going to spur that on. ‘They (private developers) will have more of a sense of security, that this is long term and it’s going to continue…’
An ongoing project has been the renovation of the historic Hacienda Hotel by Jim Gunderson, who also renovated the Lakeside Inn in Mount Dora. The hotel is on the National Register of Historic Places, and Gunderson is hoping to have the 42-room boutique hotel in the heart of downtown ready to open in September, Manns said.
The city’s waterfront garnered plenty of interest from the consultants. Changes were recommended for Sims Park and its boat launch, including finding a better solution for boat trailer parking so that more of the waterfront could be opened up for other uses.
Much of the consultant focus, fueled by public input gathered at several sessions last year, was mindful of a desire to keep future New Port Richey development to scale and consistent with the community’s character. A community that was safe and walkable were also on the list of priorities. And while the focus was centered on downtown, the consultant and the City Council were clear that there needed to be a way to also improve residential areas, which will drive business development…
Even as New Port Richey’s conceptual planning process ends, its chance to show off what has been accomplished will come next month, when the city hosts the 2021 Preservation on Main Street conference, presented in partnership with New Port Richey Main Street and the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation.
Entitled “Reimagining the Road Ahead,” the conference will be held in New Port Richey from July 21-24 and will feature education sessions and other activities featuring New Port Richey’s special attributes.
Conference participants will visit the Oelsner Mound, recently added to the National Register of Historic Places, and several cemeteries, and they will also hear how the city rebranded itself during a pandemic and about the restoration work at the Hacienda.
Other side activities for participants will include boat rides on the Cotee River, a tour of Pasco’s stilt houses and a ghost tour.”
— Barbara Behrendt, Tampa Bay Times
Read entire article
by TRC_Admin | Jul 21, 2021 | Historic, Master Planning
Video – “Watch the Miami skyline evolve over decades” 1937 – 2019
Video: Miami Herald Facebook
by TRC_Admin | Jul 21, 2021 | Master Planning
Illustration: Arquitectonica
“Think Edgewater’s dense enough? Just wait. The bayfront neighborhood is slated for the country’s tallest waterfront residential twin towers…
The project will have two 62-story towers with a total of 782 units, said Melo Group Co-Principal Martin Melo. The project’s developer, Edgewater-based Melo Group, launched pre-sales for the five-acre project at 700 NE 24th St. in June…
‘This is the type of project that’s accommodating the newcomers coming to Miami. This is for tech people coming from New York City and California,’ Bozovic said. ‘It’s pricing people out, [but] this project is symbolic of where Miami is heading. These condos are targeting people planning to live in Miami for the long term.’
Edgewater, spanning the bayfront from Northeast 15th Street to the Julia Tuttle Causeway, is known for its proximity to the Arts & Entertainment District, Wynwood, Midtown and Miami Metrorail. The neighborhood is home to about 7,600 residents — up by 30% since 2000, according to data from the U.S. Census and the Miami Downtown Development Authority’s 2018 Greater Downtown Miami Demographics report.
The already-dense area has a variety of boutique buildings and high-rises, partly thanks to the area’s pioneers the Melo Group. The firm has 10 residential buildings in the neighborhood, including the similarly named Aria on the Bay. Besides Aria Reserve, it has another one in the works — a pair of 15-story buildings on the corner of Second Avenue and Northeast 22nd Street…
More is on the way for the neighborhood, including a 400-unit project by the Kushner Companies and a 322-unit condo by Grupo T&C. Although many developers are scooping up empty lots, some are buying existing buildings and evicting tenants to upgrade buildings, including Aimco/AIR with its Hamilton on the Bay.
The changes in the neighborhood exemplify Miami’s struggle to provide and maintain housing for all residents. Residents near the urban core continue to be priced out of evolving and increasingly desirable neighborhoods. Many opt for Homestead or neighborhoods in Broward County to gain more space at a lower cost.”
— Rebecca San Juan, Miami Herald
Read entire article
by TRC_Admin | Jul 21, 2021 | Master Planning
Illustration: HDR
“The city has been working on a plan to improve Bruce Beach since it reopened to the public in 2018.
In 2019, as part of CivicCon, the landscape architecture firm SCAPE developed a concept to improve Bruce Beach as one of its “catalytic” projects to activate the city’s waterfront, along with a sister project known as the “hashtag” that will improve the intersections of Main, Palafox, Jefferson and Cedar streets…
Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson also pushed forward a bond refinancing plan that generated more than $18 million to be used on projects inside the city’s urban core. The city has set aside about $8.6 million of those funds for the Bruce Beach project.
The designs released last week during a virtual public workshop show much of the original 2019 SCAPE plan intact, with a bridge over Washerwoman Creek, a bluff overlooking the water, a learning garden and a kayak launch.
The biggest change in the plan is the absence of an education center that would have been used to teach students about the ecology of Pensacola Bay and the area’s cultural significance and history.
Robinson told the News Journal on Friday that the city still wants to add the education center, but it will have to come from a later round of funding…”
— Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal
Read entire article
by TRC_Admin | Jul 21, 2021 | Master Planning
Rendering: Ram Realty Advisors
“The development team behind the proposed $90 million mixed-use project in St. Pete Beach publically unveiled conceptual renderings and plans for the first time.
On Thursday, South Florida-based real estate firm Ram Realty Advisors presented glossy renderings of the planned waterfront development dubbed Corey Landing during a public meeting at St. Pete Beach Community Center. The images revealed a modern building that would have 243 Class-A residential units along with more than 10,000 square feet of retail space to the east end of Corey Avenue…
The images also revealed a potential 3,000-5,000-square-foot waterfront restaurant, a park that the group would partner with the city to create, and boat docks that would be split between residents of the residential tower and for public use…
Although the plans are preliminary as the engineering plans must be filed, it sparked concern in a crowded room as many questioned the needed parking spaces, the transient users of the units and the height of the building; the maximum height the complex can reach is 85 feet or roughly seven stories…
This isn’t the first time the property has garnered interest from a developer. Through the years, there have been multiple failed attempts to develop it as the proposals were met with opposition from the public and officials, according to numerous reports.
The team, which is working with North Carolina-based design consultant Kimley-Horn, is planning to submit an application to the city by August. They hope to break ground in June 2022 and complete the project by June 2024.”
— Veronica Brezina, St. Pete Catalyst
Read entire article
