TAMPA | Element | 460 FT / 140 M | 34 FLOORS

[blazertke]

After a couple of years of reading and viewing the works of others on this website. I finally decided to ante up and post some stuff from my neck of the woods

below is the largest construction project going on in Tampa.

34floors


Photo from condodomain.com

Originally Posted by Katie Gerfen

Construction Begins on Tampa Condo Tower
January 03, 2007
By Katie Gerfen, Contributing Editor

Novare-intown Tampa Development announced today that financing has closed and construction begun on the company's 34-story condominium tower in Tampa. The project, called Element, features 395 residences and 15,500 square feet of storefront retail. Construction financing is being handled by Corus Bank of Chicago and ArCap Finance Corporation of Texas. The project is slated for completion in late 2008 or early 2009.

The high-end residences will feature such finishes as granite countertops, floor-to-ceiling windows, balconies and 10-foot ceilings. Community amenities include swimming pools, a fitness center and clubrooms for entertaining. Prices for the units are expected to start at the $200,000 range for one bedrooms, and two bedrooms condos will also be available.


The project is meant to anchor an up and coming arts district with another Novare-intown project, the SkyPoint, which is slated to begin receiving residents in April. These condo communities, along with the redevelopment of Riverfront Park--the future home of the new Tampa Museum of Art--will help to create a thriving, 24-hour community for young people and residents interested in the arts scene.

The Tampa condominium market has been booming over the past couple of years, which contributed greatly to the annual number of approved permit projects totaling over $1 billion for the first time ever in 2005. Median pricing in February 2005 was $152,000 for a condominium, but that has increased since: when units for SkyPoint were put on the market last year, the units began at $170,000. But the market does seem to be slowing. It is unclear whether this is due to saturation from several large condo projects opening since the beginning of 2005 or waiting for the new wave to be completed, but the number of condo sales--not including private sales or new construction--in November 2006 was 183, down from 279 in the same month the previous year, according to the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors.

Novare-intown is a joint venture between developers the Novare Group and Intowngroup. The latter is a local firm focused on creating sustainable urban infill projects in the southeastern United States. The Novare Group focuses primarily on high-rise residential communities in urban markets, and has over 5,000 condominium units in development across the southern United States.

Photos taken on October 6th

Looking Northwest

Looking Southeast

[John F]

And of course -- the reason why more Tampa residents who are on the forum -- don't tend to take pictures of the Novare projects during construction (compared to how many photos of other projects get published on SSP) is because of the Ox Blue webcams that are provided for Novare projects:

http://novare.oxblue.com/element/

Construction really didn't truly get underway until April of this year and the pace (compared to Novare's last Tampa project -- Skypoint) is breakneck. At five months on THAT project, they had only 2 floors of the parking decks done.

One other thing -- is it 34 floors or 35? I've heard 35. 10 for parking and 25 on the main tower.

Currently the structure is on the fifth floor, with the first concrete of the 6th already poured where condo units will be, but the majority of the 6th deck has yet to be poured.

[John F]

BTW Blazer -- welcome to posting!

[MarketsWork]

I'm surprised that nobody's yet pointed out that this project looks like a carbon copy of Novare's Viewpoint tower here in Atlanta. Not that that's a bad thing, because Novare has brought many affordable condos to the market here, and it's hard to argue with a successful formula. I think it looks great. You can get a glimpse of Tampa's future on the Viewpoint webcam here:
http://oxblue.com/client/novare/viewpoint/

[John F]

and larger renderings of Novare. Yes the style is cookie cutter compared to other buildings by Novare...

[blazertke]

Personal Photo from October 18th


schematic model of dowtown - pink foam represents THE ELEMENT


View from I275 / I4 interchange

[FastFerrari82]

very nice building..plz keep up with some pics!

[KevinFromTexas]

That looks nice.

[blazertke]

Thing are moving along at the Element. they've been adding a floor about every 2 weeks. the 8th floor has been poured and the framing for the 9th floor has been started.

the 10th floor is the last full block floor. so figure it will be about christmas time when the first true residence floor(11th) gets poured

here a couple of shots from the november 17th

Originally Posted by John F

One other thing -- is it 34 floors or 35? I've heard 35. 10 for parking and 25 on the main tower.

the 34th level condos are multi level.

[blazertke]

December 16th update

the 9th floor has been poured. framing for the 10th floor has begun. it looks as though the tenth floor will nearly align with the top of the TECO building.

the novare construction camera has been moved this past week. it looks like they'll be able to keep it here through completion of the 25th floor or so

here's there site again - http://novare.oxblue.com/element/



view from the Poe parking garage

[blazertke]

January 3rd 2008 update

framing of the 10th floor continues. which is an important floor because it is the roof of parking garage. thus the remaining floors will be less than half in total area compared to the area of all the prior floors.

my last shot from this angle


view from Poe garage

[phillyskyline]

I feel this project is moving very slowly? However, it should be a nice addition to the Tampa skyline once completed.

[blazertke]

yep, it is moving slow. however, the 10th floor is the towers most complicated upper floor, since it serves as the transition between the parking garage and residential floors.

if this tower is anything like its fraternal twin "SkyPoint" the floors after the 10th should go up every 6th or 7th work day

[Complex01]

Nice pics. Looks like a kewl project. Very kewl...

[blazertke]

the element is finally moving onto the residence phase of the project

here are some photos on 1-11-08 taken from SkyPoint









photos from the sales center








mock-up condo of Element

[ArchMadness]

Looks good. The building is going to have a pretty big impact on the skyline as well.

[blazertke]

framing of the 12th floor continues
Glass installment began about a week
should see a new floor every 6 or 7 business days
so, should be topped out by late july.

January 24th shots

[blazertke]

photos from febuary 1st...


shows framing has begun on the 14th floor.

[Florida'sFuture]

The model:

[Florida'sFuture]

I love this project. It's curved green glass will be such a nice compliment to the rest of the skyline. The top is better then Skypoint's top too.