The Franklin Street historic preservation buildings; S.H. Kress & Co., J.J.Newberry Dept Store and Woolworth’s in downtown Tampa are undergoing fast changes. A decisive Tampa City Council battleground in 2000’s between the buildings ownership and Tampa City Council to maintain the historic landmark buildings instead of having them demolished for Condo towers. All have the buildings have historic preservation inheritance.

     It seems to have been at least 5 years since we heard of any public activity for the downtown dept store block. In just a few weeks the full city block is going from being boarded up for 17 years to restored and for use. It is rumored that Bain Capital is behind the funding. Humm.. could this be the not so secret location of the “Secret Mitt Rommey Headquarters?”

    It was only 2 weeks ago that the next door towering historic Floridan Hotel re-opened  after being closed for over 25 years. The hotel had a major $10 million dollar renovation.It is beautiful!  Can you just imagine how fast we could change downtown Tampa if our permit & construction services department always worked this incredibly fast.