Luxury condo tower continues Downtown Tampa building boom

Downtown Tampa’s luxury condo boom continues with Arris Tampa, a 34-story tower that will rise across from Curtis Hixon Riverfront Park on what is now a parking lot at Ashley Drive and Twiggs Street.

The developers partnering on the project, Ascentia Development Group and Batson-Cook Development Company, are also behind the 24-story, 71-unit Virage Bayshore condo tower, which just topped out and has only four residences left to sell.

“Downtown Tampa has a new level of excitement and vibrancy that people across the country are noticing,” Jay Tallman, the president of Ascentia Development Group, says in a news release. “Arris Tampa will be a beautiful architectural statement that adds to the downtown skyline, and residents will have world-class art, restaurants, and entertainment just steps from their front door.”

A rendering of the Arris Tampa condo tower planned downtown.Arris Tampa is designed to have 80 residences ranging in size from 1,110 to 3,700 square feet and in price from $600,000 to more than $2 million. Each floor will have four residences or less with views of the downtown skyline, Curtis Hixon Park, the Hillsborough River, and the University of Tampa’s iconic minarets.

The tower will feature a 5,000-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor, integrated parking, and a rooftop Residents Club with a pool.

The developers plan to start construction in mid-2020.

In an email, an Arris Tampa representative says people increasingly want to live in an urban hub to enjoy city living and take advantage of the cultural offerings, restaurants, and events and that make projects like Virage Bayshore and now Arris Tampa attractive to buyers, particularly those moving out of single-family homes.

The representative says Arris Tampa seeks to set itself apart with the number of low residences per floor, panoramic views, and luxury offerings like fine dining on the first floor.

The Arris Tampa announcement continues a condo building boom in downtown. From 2016 to 2018, the total number of residences downtown grew from approximately 5,700 to 7,500, with more than 1,600 under construction and in excess of 4,100 proposed, according to the biennial survey sponsored by the Tampa Downtown Partnership.

Here are links to some of the projects and businesses in this story: Arris Tampa, Virage Bayshore, Ascentia Development Group, Batson-Cook Development Company

Here is the Tampa Downtown Partnership’s latest worker and resident survey.