Tampa's Sparkman Wharf: A Good Example for the Landing

[thelakelander]

Channelside Bay Plaza shunned both the water and its neighborhood. Sparkman Wharf opens up to the waterfront — and soon, the Channel district


The first phase of the Sparkman Wharf redevelopment solves a problem that plagued the property since it opened as Channelside Bay Plaza in 2001: It features a dining garden and recreational lawn overlooking the water, instead of turning its back on the Ybor Turning Basin.

Now, work is beginning on the second phase, solving another long-standing issue: Strategic Property Partners will completely overhaul the wharf's facades, with soaring windows that will make the building seem much more inviting from the northern side, which faces the surrounding Channel district.

The new facades will totally change the feel of that stretch of Channelside Drive, making it a much more inviting streetscape to the residents and cruise ship passengers who walk along that side of the building, which will be filled with office and retail tenants.

"We're punching windows all the way around," said Dave Bevirt, executive vice president of office leasing and strategy for SPP. "It's going to be chockablock full of natural light. The current architecture — it feels like a little bit of a fortress, but once we punch in those windows, it'll be totally different: light, bright, airy, and really, really cool."

Full article: https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2018/11/28/channelside-bay-plaza-shunned-both-the-water-and.html

[dp8541]

I  live in Tampa now and have been excited for Sparkman Wharf to open and it is a great concept which is only part of the entire water street development backed by Gates and the owner of the lightening.  However, I think Amature Works is a much better starting point for the landing than Sparkman Wharf is.  The landing has existing infrastructure which would play more into the Amature works design than Sparkman Wharf.  Sparkman Wharf is basically 8 or 9 shipping containers retrofitted into food / drink establishments surrounding an outside beer garden.  All of that is awesome and a great meeting spot in downtown, but not sure if that idea works at the landing.

[thelakelander]

I do prefer the tenant mix and century old industrial architecture of Amature Works but I was speaking in regards to the old Channelside Bay Plaza basically being a carbon copy of what the Landing is today (a self contained late 20th century waterfront retail/entertainment center) and it being retrofitted as opposed to completely demolished.

[Kerry]

They demoed about 1/3 of the sites footprint.  Where the park is now used to be a 27,000 sq ft building housing 2 restaurants and vacant office space.

[thelakelander]

Yes. That's still a better option that demoing an entire site and subsidizing the rebuild of the same use a mile down the road. Looking at the Landing, there's three buildings and a lot more retail space than we can fill. As a mixed-use revamp, some existing space would have to be converted to another use or some selective demo could be done to enhance other spaces and outdoor areas. That's why I mentioned being creative in a different thread about how you can re-imagine an existing space without full demo.

[dp8541]

completely agree that a demo of the landing is far from the best option.  My original post was just suggesting that they could convert the landing as is, without any demo,  into something similar to Amarture Works in Tampa.  If they were going to utilize the container food court option (like Sparkman) it would require a lot of demo of the current landing structure as it does not appear to have enough room in the courtyard area to do anything close to Sparkman.

[ProjectMaximus]

Armature Works. http://armatureworks.com

Sorry, by the 4th misspelling I just had to reply. Genuinely wondering if the forum has some kind of censor blocking the correct spelling.

[thelakelander]

A story/photo tour on Armature Works that we ran back in August:

https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/tampas-armature-works-a-lesson-for-the-landing/

[Kerry]

Is the Landing built over the river on pilings?  Is Bay Street the original riverbank?

[thelakelander]

The Landing is built on top of a parking lot, which was an area of the river filled in during the 1950s. Basically everything south of Bay (excluding the courthouse parking lot) is fill.







More images: https://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-may-a-different-waterfront/page/

[bl8jaxnative]

Every site is different.  What I'd like to see downtown is an area that invites people to move through it and interface with the river on the Northbank.   I'm thinking of a place like Friendship FOuntain on the Southbank.  We don't seem to have that.   Would it be worth tearing down The Landing to enable such a place?