Five new residential towers will add 1,500 apartments in Downtown Tampa in the next two to three years, creating the synergy necessary to attract investors eager to help develop a vibrant urban scene that attracts young professionals, global travelers and empty-nesters.
A popular Clearwater pizza restaurant is now open in a former bar in Ybor City. Award-winning architect Elliott Wheeler did the re-design including a unique brick coal-fired oven for cooking pizzas.
Nearly 15,000 Little Free Libraries are scattered among neighborhoods across the country. These libraries are small wood boxes perched atop thick posts and stuffed with paper books. The idea is that people stop by, take a book and leave a book, and maybe introduce themselves to neighbors they've never met. Ridgewood Park neighborhood is unveiling its Little Free Library as a way to encourage literacy and a sense of community.
The U.S. Green Building Council and Congress for New Urbanism are encouraging a more holistic approach to creating eco-friendly sustainable neighborhoods. Local chapters for these organizations will discuss the new rating system, known as LEED ND, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-Neighborhood Development.
Transforming the long vacant, historic Kress Building on North Franklin Street into a vibrant urban gathering place complete with public marketplace, homes and offices is a key part of the vision for downtown Tampa's future.
The LGBT Welcome Center and Coffeehouse will open the last weekend in June during the annual gay pride events in St. Petersburg. The center will offer travel resources, information about arts and cultural events and a safe haven for LGBT youth.
The Chihuly Collecton, owned by the Morean Arts Center, will hold a grand opening April 4 of its new retail store. The reconfigured and redesigned space will offer more Chihuly-brand merchandise as well as new inventories of jewelry, artisanal soaps and pottery. A rotating gallery will display glasswork from artists around the country as well as focusing on more Florida artists.
Following the success of its first Smartstart business incubator, the Pasco Economic Development Council is ready to open a second site in a former New Port Richey post office.
Nine homes, from 1920s bungalows to mid-century Modern, will be showcased April 6 at the 16th Annual Seminole Heights Home Tour. A portion of the proceeds benefit Urban Art Attack and Habitat for Humanity.
The second annual Tampa Bay Small Business Symposium will be held from 8 .am. to 4:30 p.m. March 29 at the NFL Yet Center in Jackson Heights, at 3310 E. Lake Ave.
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