Mixed-use, 14-story apartment tower could rise on former AAA property in Westshore

BDG is working with Ally Capital Group and Franklin Street on the design of a new mixed-use development on Westshore Boulevard in Tampa on the former site of AAA Auto Club. The proposed design includes 360 apartments in two 14-story towers, a 6-story parking garage, a 7,000 SF restaurant and a dog park. Read the full article in the Tampa Bay Business Journal here.

Mixed-use, 14-story apartment tower could rise on former AAA property in Westshore

By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer – Real Estate Editor, Tampa Bay Business Journal
Feb 28, 2022

A Tampa developer is proposing to build hundreds of apartments and a large restaurant on the Westshore property that was previously home to The Auto Club Group, also known as AAA.

Ally Capital Group, controlled by Franklin Street founder Andrew Wright, paid $8.75 million for the 3-acre parcel at 1515 N. Westshore Blvd. in August 2021. The firm is now seeking a rezoning to make way for 360 apartments in two 14-story towers, which bookend a six-story parking structure, according to plans filed with the city on Feb. 25. A ground-floor, 7,000-square-foot restaurant in the first tower fronts North Westshore Boulevard. The project also includes a proposed on-site dog park.

The restaurant includes an outdoor, 1,900-square-foot patio underneath an existing oak tree on the property. Rezoning applications require quasi-judicial public hearings before Tampa City Council.

The rezoning application asks the city to waive the required parking for the project by just over 13%. Ally Capital has proposed 622 spaces; 718 are required under city code. The firm also wants a waiver to reduce the number of loading spaces by half, from four to two. Requiring the additional loading spaces would detract from the project's design, according to the project narrative filed with the city.

The developer also cites the tower's "unique design" among the justifications for the parking waiver.

"The pedestrian experience is designed with a large entry plaza that incorporates artwork in the form of a commissioned sculpture," according to the project narrative. "Ambient lighting will provide for safe pathways through the plaza and the overall site in the form of in-ground and bollard lighting. The blending of art, landscape and decorative hardscape intersecting with the undulating facade of the architecture results in a unique space that the overlay district champions."

Kimley-Horn is the engineer on the project; BDG Architects is the architect.