New townhome development Westbay planned for South Tampa

What is now a vacant lot will become the location of affordable townhomes by next summer.
 
Urban Edge Development plans to build a six-unit townhouse development on West Bay Avenue, just east of Dale Mabry Highway. It will be called WestBay Townhomes and will consist of 1,400-square-foot town houses with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, garages and designer kitchens with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and 42-inch upper cabinets. Prices will be in the mid-$200,000s.
 
Russ Versaggi, president of Urban Edge, says the company hopes to break ground on the project in November and complete it by early summer 2017.
 
"South Tampa continues to be one of the strongest markets in the Bay area and therefore provides strong demand for well-designed housing," Versaggi says. "South Tampa has much going for it: proximity to employment centers, restaurants, specialty retailers, recreational venues, Bayshore, etc."
 
Versaggi is an experienced infill developer who says he is focusing on bringing quality affordable housing to top infill locations in the Tampa Bay Area where most people want to live, work and play. The company looks for job centers, entertainment, shopping and highway access.
 
"Infill development is the process of developing vacant or under-utilized parcels within existing urban areas that are already developed for the most part," he says. "It is like 'filling in' the gaps of a neighborhood."
 
The townhouses are designed with first-time homebuyers in mind. The company is offering a builder credit of up to $5,000 to help buyers with closing costs.
 
"The current focus is really on delivering a quality home at a value price," says John Bielefeldt, Versaggi's marketing consultant. "The financing crunch, affordability gap and high rental rates makes affordable infill projects like WestBay very attractive to today's buyers. The younger buyers have been affected by school debt and the slowing economy, making homeownership very difficult for many."