Plans Call for 'Urban Mixed-Use Development'
TAMPA - The Developer that built Wilderness Lake Preserve in suburban Pasco County plans a decidedly more urban development on Memorial Highway in Tampa.

Lindell Properties, the development firm headed by former automobile dealer Carl Lindell, Jr., said Thursday that it has purchased a 44-acre property near the Rocky Point Golf Course for $23 million and will plan a "urban mixed-use development" with stores and homes, according to Lindell, the company's chairman. The details haven't been worked out: The company will talk to neighbors and city officials and host focus groups as it shapes its plans.

More detailed information might be available this month or early next year.

The property is south of Memorial Highway between George Road and Independence Parkway, west of Tampa International Airport and south of the Town 'N Country neighborhood. Most of the site is undeveloped, except for ka three-story 125,000-sq. ft. office building and its adjoining parking lots. JPMorgan Chase, the seller, no longer needs the land or the building; the company announced in January that it would close its credit card call center here. The local office of CD Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate services firm, handles the deal for New York-based JPMorgan Chase.

Lindell Properties will convert the existing building, selling office condominiums from 1,000 sq. ft. to 10,000 sq. ft. to doctors, lawyers and other professionals.

The entire site is zoned for 650,000 sq. ft. of office or light industrial space. Stores and homes are "more in keeping with what is necessary today," says Dick Greco, Lindell Properties' executive vice president and former mayor of Tampa.Despite the different land use, Greco said the company dose not want to build anything that would create more traffic than if the company were to build the office and industrial space already OK'd for the site.

Don Whyte, chairman of the Urban Land Institute's Tampa Bay District Council, said the Lindell Properties project could bring attention to the area. Infill projects (those that bring development to areas that are mostly built out) are an important part of any region's growth strategy, as they provide new places for people to shop, work and live without expanding into the suburbs.

Whyte, who is also the southeast regional president for San Diego-based Newland Communities, said the land is in good hands. Lindell Properties "is a quality developer, and I know they'' do it right."

Grady Prigen Inc., a St. Petersburg-based developer, is a partner in the JPMorgan Chase site project.

Lindell Properties also is working on a second project in Hillsborough county: a $60 million, 48 unit condominium complex in Apollo Beach.

The condo complex will be on the site of the former Ramada Inn hotel, at 6414 Surfside Blvd., at the end of Apollo Beach Boulevard.

The company expects to begin the formal permitting process early next year. Condominiums will range in size from 2,500 to 3,500 sq. ft., and prices likely will run from $950,000 to more than $1.5 million. Construction is slated to start in mid-2006 and take about 20 months, according to Lindell Properties president and Chief Executive Officer Ron Weisser.