(Starbucks Harbor Island facebook page)
Conceived at the height of the 1980s festival marketplace craze, Tampa’s Shoppes at Harbour Island officially opened for business on June 23, 1985. Developed by a subsidiary of Delaware-based Beneficial Corporation, the 105,000-square-foot retail complex was a part of a vision of Tampa having a bustling waterfront with offices, shops and restaurants similar to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The vision was so grand that the development also included a people mover system to connect it with Downtown Tampa. Beneficial also built a 300-room luxury hotel and 196,000-square-foot office tower adjacent to the festival marketplace.
Despite a grand opening that featured former President Gerald R. Ford as a speaker and attracted 100,000 people, business did not flourish and by the mid-1990s, the entire retail complex had closed. After three years of remaining idle, Beneficial reopened the revamped complex in 1998 as Knights Point on Harbour Island. Accepting that the two-story building offered more retail space than what could be supported by the community and tourist traffic, Beneficial repositioned the second floor as waterfront office space and retooled to first level to support full-service restaurants and a limited amount of complementing retail and dining storefronts. The conversion of the marketplace into an office and retail complex effectively cut the amount of space dedicated to retail by fifty percent.
(American Social Bar and Kitchen facebook page)
In 2014, the center was sold to Convergent Capital Partners for $7.5 million and rebranded “The Pointe”. At the time, the development firm announced plans to invest $10 million to upgrade the property’s common areas, expand the number of boat slips from 20 to 44 and bring in more high-end retail and dining options. Retaining the center’s landmark restaurant Jackson’s Bistro Bar & Sushi, Convergent has kept true to their promise by recently adding American Social Bar and Kitchen and Downtown Tampa’s second Starbuck’s Coffee. Brining in American Social Bar, a 9,000-square-foot restaurant featuring a 5,000-square-foot bayfront patio offering a high-end look with food served at reasonable price points, created 177 new staffing positions.
Here’s a few images of The Point which was purchased and renovated for less than Jacksonville has proposed to buy and raze the Landing.
(Starbucks Harbor Island facebook page)
(American Social Bar and Kitchen facebook page)
(Jackson’s Bistro Bar & Sushi facebook page)
(Jackson’s Bistro Bar & Sushi facebook page)
(Jackson’s Bistro Bar & Sushi facebook page)
(American Social Bar and Kitchen facebook page)
(American Social Bar and Kitchen facebook page)
Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com