For sale: Channel District condos on the water, $300,000 to $500,000. Port views. And noises. And smells. Live with it.
It's hardly the pitch you'd expect for high-end real estate in a hot downtown Tampa neighborhood.
But condo buyers at Downtown Channelside, the twin 30-story towers planned beside the Channelside entertainment complex, will be required to sign away their rights to object to (read "sue over") "any noises, smells and other aspects" of nearby port activities.
The Tampa Port Authority board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on an agreement to sell 3.5 acres to developers of the condo towers and a commercial complex anchored by an urban Sweet Bay Supermarkets, the renamed Kash n' Karry.
The agency's staff heard that the port of New Orleans had been sued by condo owners upset over the noise and smoke from cruise ships docking near their homes. Port tenants also warned that Downtown Channelside residents might get rattled by late night work at nearby shipyards.
Brooks Byrd of Byrd Corp., developer of the proposed condo towers, says he didn't have a problem with language in the 60-page sales contract that prohibits buyers from objecting to sights, sounds and scents from surrounding activities at the port.
The condos will be built solidly enough to shut out most of the noise, he says. Byrd built the Grandview condos on Harbour Island, and he says residents there haven't been bothered by music from concerts blasting across Garrison Channel from the St. Pete Times Forum.
Besides, a big attraction of Downtown Channelside will be living next to a working port. "We recognize that any time you're building at a working port, there's good news and bad news," Byrd says. "It will definitely be urban living."
