Expected: Eric Odum and Brian Willis, Esq. Becker and Poliakoff
Dated: September 27, 2010
Theme: Hillsborough County Traffic Referendum: Additional one cent tax. What’s its purpose? What does it mean to you!
OE: Good afternoon and welcome to the Market Minute. This is Eric Odum, I’m the broker for Net Lease Commercial Advisory. Today we have Brian Willis with us, who is Becker and Poliakoff’s attorney, and also a member of TBARTA’s Citizen Advisory Board. Welcome Brian.
BW: Thanks for having me, Eric.
OE: Absolutely. This video will be the first of two parts. The first part of our discussion will be based primarily on the initiative … what does it entail, where are the routes and what are not. The second part, obviously there is a sales tax penny that is involved and some controversy behind the tax penny, ….. So what we’re going to try to do in the second part, is talk about some of those issues with the cent. taxes and also the transportation initiative to help explore how much this makes sense for our area. The penny tax is a sales tax, correct?
BW: Yes, it is a sales tax. It would be a hundred more, right now we are paying 7%, I would raise it to 8%, but in reality it is an investment that is destined to finance improvements and the railroad is what everyone really associates this with. But a large chunk of the funding will also go to fund improvements to the bus system across the county, as well as improvements to roads and locations that are not necessarily downtown, but also in the outer regions of the county. .
OE: Now, when will this vote take place?
BW: Voting will take place on the ballot in November. I think it’s November 2 or 3, over there. Of course, there is an early voting now, so vote on it a couple of weeks before.
OE: Okay, let’s talk a bit about light rail versus high-speed rail. The light rail is part of this initiative, is it also high speed? How does the high-speed train …
BW: Yes, it is a frequently asked question that I get. The high speed train is NOT part of this initiative. It is not part of what the hundred would go to. The high-speed train is done. It is being financed with stimulus dollars. The federal government is stepping in (to help fund it) and that will connect Tampa to Orlando at speeds in excess of 160 mph. The light rail, which is what a part of the one hundred investment would go to, will be local. It will connect … the initial stages at least, it will connect the airport, West Shore to downtown and downtown North to USF, beyond the Cross Creek area, and eventually it will be part of this regional system going to be operated by TBARTA in the long term.
OE: So the high-speed rail is yet to come, it has nothing to do with the penny tax, it will come regardless of the result of the penny tax vote in November. The vote on the penny tax in November will include rubber initiatives in trucking as well as light rail. Is that a good description?
BW: Yes, yes, that is absolutely correct.
OE: it’s okay.
BW: And it is important to clarify how they work together. The hundred will not go to the high-speed train. Everyone works together because the high-speed train is going to enter and we are going to have a transit center in downtown Tampa … so the idea is that the downtown light rail station is part of this multi-transit station. modal. There is high speed rail, light rail and it will be right across the street from where the Marion bus station is, so it will have an integrated transit platform in the north central. It will allow people to come from Orlando, from all over the region, and connect.
OE: So it’s going to be in the middle of Marion, so it’s right around the old jail site, correct? ….. The northeast part of the center.
BW: Yes, the northeast part of the city center.
OE: For the ENCORE! Project.
BW: Just a little further from ENCORE! Project, so they’re taking advantage of that and making a walkable mixed-use neighborhood that embraces these transit-oriented development principles. So that will be a big part of this.
OE: Now, you’ve talked about TBARTA, you’ve talked about Hart, and I heard this name around “Moving Hillsborough Forward”, what is that?
BW: ‘Moving Hillsborough Forward’ is a group that was formed by the Tampa Bay Association, and they are essentially, a political group that is helping to run the campaign for this one hundred investment tax and I think the Tampa Bay Association is really important. for the initiative because it shows that companies recognize the importance of this one hundred investment. What we have seen is that we are losing our competitive advantage to people across the country when looking for where to locate their businesses. The people of the Tampa Bay Partnership are investing the money in this campaign so that we have this modern transportation system.
OE: So I hope that there are several people involved in the process here, that there are some kind of bigger initiatives, that there is cooperation. Often times when you see a government agency, sometimes they don’t always play well together in the litter box, so hopefully there will be some kind of better plan here, right?
BW: Yes, there is. It has the TBARTA master plan that you can find on the TBARTA website, which is TBARTA.com, and that involves both this regional system that is made up of the HART alternatives analysis study to be carried out and to be funded. for one hundrerd . It also has a Sarasota / Bradenton rail link that is part of the TBARTA system. Pinellas County is conducting its own alternatives analysis study to see how they could connect Clearwater with the Gateway area, with downtown St. Pete, as well as cross the bridge to connect and create an integrated system with the county. from Hillsborough. And there are similar projects underway in Pasco with the rail line around the 54/56 State Road corridor and going north to Citrus / Hernando counties. What we see is that there is a lot of demand for people to get in and out of Hillsborough County, and we are here, talking about this Hillsborough project, we are focused on it because we are in Hillsborough, it is part of a larger regional system, and not only TBARTA. It will connect with the high speed train, and then there will be Sun Rail in Orlando.
OE: How is Pinellas?
BW: Pinellas has been behind us for a couple of years. Hillsborough is ahead. They have the funds available to begin what is called their alternative analysis study, which is a process that Hillsborough began two years ago and is about to complete, which looks at the different possible rail alignments. They established the corridor; the corridor is Clearwater, Gateway and St. Pete. Then, they analyze which specific roads and which roads within that corridor would be the most economically efficient roads to traverse. And that’s the process that is being finalized in Hillsborough right now.
OE: Now, let’s talk a bit about the real estate side, because most of the people who see this will be real estate people or real estate investors, and they will want to know ‘what’s in it for me’. and how they can take advantage of some of the opportunities that may arise. You talked to me a bit before having this interview about a quarter mile ring and a half mile ring, what is that all about?
BW: At TBARTA we spend a lot of our time on land use issues, because what we have shown time and again is that transit initiatives like the one we have in Hillsborough County do not succeed without changes in land use. Earth. to support transit. And those changes in land use help preserve single-family (residences), the existing structure of the community, but it has changes within a quarter of a mile of the station, which is its main area. So you have a ring that is a quarter or a half mile from the stop. The central area within a quarter mile is the main walking distance from the station. It is designed to be a high density mixed use development hence stores, Starbucks, CVS, restaurants …
EO: Condominiums
BW: Condos … absolutely …. in a dense development ….. Places where you can stay 24 hours and live, work and play.
OE: Typically what does this do to property values around this dense inner core?
BW: There have been numerous studies done on this and most of them find that you are finding between four and more than 15% increase in property values around the core. There is a lot of demand for this kind of life. It saves people money on their overall transit bill because they don’t necessarily have to have a home with two cars, so people are willing to pay more to enter these areas, and businesses are willing to pay more to be. there due to the presence of people and the possibility of bringing workers to their stores.
OE: Agree. These rail lines, there has been a discussion about the first line that goes to the USF and then there were some protests that we have to go to the airport first. Where are we now? What is the general consensus on where the first line will be placed?
BW: With the initial plans, everyone thought it would go from the West Shore to Downtown. There was a great response from the public, and it did a great thing because it made HART reconsider, and now the first line includes the Tampa Airport, West Shore. In fact, the airport has dedicated land that will allow them to speed up their construction process. Therefore, the high-speed rail we talked about above will be completed around 2015, and now they are looking for a time frame in 2015 to complete the stretch of the transit project from Tampa airport to downtown if they pass a hundred. .
OE: If the hundred passes … So it looks like it’s pretty established, then that seems to be the most logical route and then we’ll continue to USF.
BW: The idea is that you build them fairly consistently, it wouldn’t be much later, but the idea is that you do one phase at a time, the first phase is the airport, the second phase connects the city center, USF with Bruce B. .Downs area.
OE: Fantastic. Thanks again Brian, I really appreciate your time to come and explain some of this to us, it is important that not only the people in that area associated with Net Lease Advisory know what is happening, but also that the general public know what is happening , so we made the right decisions.
BW: Thanks for having me here.
OE: I appreciate!
