I recently spent some time in the Channel District with some buyer clients who have decided to make the former industrial district their home upon relocating to Tampa in October. Many of the Channel District projects have been in the news lately. The Towers, The Place and Ventana are all in some sort of financial funk. The Towers and The Place both entered bankruptcy this year and the developer at Ventana handed the project over to the lender. Ventana is in receivership, not bankruptcy.
The Place at Channelside is due to auction its unsold inventory of 170 some odd units in early October. Minimum bid is reported to be $17.2 million dollars, or around $100k per door. Rumor has it that the interested bidders would lease the remaining unsold inventory, much like Grand Central at Kennedy is (has). And in the mix of all of this unsold inventory, The Slade, the Channel District’s newest project is beginning to take shape.
There are 93 properties listed for sale in Channelside on our MLS currently, which really does not accurately indicate availability. Much the available inventory is not on the MLS, just a representative sampling from some of the projects. Prices range from $145k for a 620sqft studio at Grand Central, to just under $2m for an almost 5000sqft unit on the 28th floor at The Towers. Median price for these 93 listings is around $395k.
Sales are slow, but steady. Most year-to-date Channel District closings have been at The Towers, one of the bigger projects and the only true highrise building. Victory Lofts has seen some resales, and there have been some sales at Ventana as well. Ventana, at 84 units, is one of the smaller of the newer projects, and is almost 50% sold (according to sales staff).
And for my $ (and tastes) Ventana seems to be the best value out there right now. Prices have been lowered since the project entered receivership, reflecting a price/sqft more in line with other areas of south Tampa/Harbour Island, etc. It is also a smaller, more intimate building of more traditional condos, as opposed to a loft or loft/condo hybrid. The true loft style of living does not seem to be that much in demand by Tampa buyers, at least from my perspective. Questions about the market?
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