Second Tampa Channelside condo developer declares bankruptcy

Last summer, dozens of people sued The Place at Channelside to get their money back on condos they felt they overpaid for in 2005.

On Wednesday the developer had had enough. Key Developers Group and its owner Fida Sirdar asked for Chapter 11 protection.

His is the second bankruptcy filing this year among Channelside condo developers. Towers at Channelside LLC declared insolvency in January.

Sirdar completed two eight-story towers last year but many investors who paid top dollar during the housing boom wanted out of the 245-unit complex at Channelside Drive and Washington St.

You've got to sympathize with both parties: The developer who built with confidence knowing he had bona fide buyers and the buyers who realized too late that imploding home values would skin them alive.

Is office real estate getting a case of the housing willies?

Just what we needed. Housing's in the tank and now office real estate isn't looking so peachy either. Here's the take from a local expert I've spoken to several times:

If every Tampa Bay area office project currently under development gets built, the regional economy will be buffeted –– though not too severely –– by a surplus otherwise known as “overbuild,” says one commercial property expert.   

Stevens E. Tombrink, CCIM, regional vice president for real estate services at Equity in the Tampa region, said he isn’t too worried Tampa’s office market will reach the “overbuild” stage.

 

“We pay very close attention to every project, so we have a clear picture of both the macro and the micro in office development,” Tombrink said.  “The truth is that only a percentage of projects under development now will ever open.  Office development is a rigorous, time-consuming enterprise, and typically more projects start the development process than end it,” he said.

 

Tombrink said office development in the region is more severely affected by high-flying insurance costs and property taxes, which have substantially reduced Florida’s competitive edge in attracting new business and industry to the state.

 

“The true effects on these price hikes are just now being felt and they will only get worse as time goes on,” said Tombrink.  “With all our efforts to create new employment here, the cost spikes are particularly disheartening,” he added.

 

Florida’s flagging housing industry is adding new woes to the region’s economy, Tombrink explained.  With fewer new homes under construction, demand for retail space is also slowing at a time when rents are approaching a ceiling.