Attempt number four at bringing the Midtown district to life is officially underway.
On June 8, City Manager Bill McDaniel announced the city sought out potential partners for the grand dream and received four bids for the project. Three of those groups were from Florida — Green Mills Group out of Fort Lauderdale, Housing Trust Group in Coconut Grove and Mosaic Development in St. Petersburg — and DevMar Development is from Birmingham, Michigan.
The bids display a wide range of proposals for the property and a meeting will be held this morning at City Hall to present the bids. Residents can attend either in person or virtually. If you choose to attend, you have to complete a COVID-19 screening when you arrive, wear a mask and social distance. Public comments were received yesterday afternoon. You can listen to the audio live by calling +1 562-247-8321 and enter access code 597-311-298# and you can stream the meeting on the City of Plant City’s Facebook or YouTube pages.
Housing Trust
Housing Trust was all-in and its proposed redevelopment plan encompasses a segment of blocks labeled “A-J.” It aims to emphasize “connectivity to the downtown area via Evers Street.” The entrance along Evers will show a four-story building with ground-level commercial spaces that have views of the Village Green Park.
It said the workspace in the commercial area on the northern edge of the park can be utilized for a variety of things including offices, retail or a fitness center. The other three stories would have 33 residential units with 128 regular and diagonal parking spaces.
Across the street, there is a proposal for nine two-story townhome units complete with balconies and front porches. If you keep driving down Evers, you get two other blocks of residential space with 15,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. There will be 112 residential units on the second, third and fourth floors.
East of North Collins Street, two blocks have another four-story building with one story of “tuck-under parking,” ground level units and three stories of residential space that would encompass 86 residential units.
A block at the intersection of Evers and West Alabama streets would have a playground and plaza with outdoor cafe-style seating. Behind this plaza would be a three-story commercial building. Parking would be located behind this building.
If you keep heading south on Evers, you get one block of a four-story residential building that would have 192 units with an outdoor pool, picnic pavilions and a playground. The inside would have a community room, small catering room and a multimedia room. The apartments proposed here are tailored for a senior lifestyle. Parking for 190 spaces are on the backside of the building.
Across the street is another four-story residential building with 92 units that would have one, two and three-bedroom options. Following north of this building is a proposal for nine two-story townhomes with two and three-bedroom options.
This grand plan is split into four phases with a heavy emphasis on connectivity to downtown.
Mosaic Development
Mosaic Development has a slightly different approach. Springing off of the parks and infrastructure currently in place, the company said it proposes having mixed-use development anchored by two apartment communities. The proposed communities would mesh well with downtown by embracing “rich historic architecture of the downtown area by emulating complimenting façade components,” the proposal read.
One of the apartment complexes would be a three-story structure and the other will be four-stories with a podium-style parking amenity. There are also plans for two townhome-style live/work developments, office space, retail space and overflow parking.
The multifamily communities will have up to 199 apartments within the three stories. It will be a mix of “studio, junior one-bedroom, two bedroom and two-bedroom with den units.” There will be ground floor amenities, a social clubhouse with management offices, a fitness center, heated pool, outdoor kitchen, co-work lab, billiards and recreation and a dog park.
The second apartment community will have approximately 199 units and a one-story podium parking structure with amenities similar to those listed at the other apartment. This parking area, however, will allow approximately 6,000 square feet of non-residential, flexible commercial space on the ground floor.
Mosaic is asking the City of Plant City to fund the one-level parking podium.
As for the townhomes, the ground floor will be built for retail/work and there will be 13 1,600 square foot units and a single two-story structure with 5,000 square feet of ground floor retail, plus 5,000 square feet of office above the ground floor retail space. This will feature around 60 parking spaces.
The next lot is being proposed as a single-story retail building of approximately 6,000 square feet. There will be limited parking of around 45 spaces. Mosaic said it will not be the developer of this site, but as the master developer it will market development to other retail developers.
Focusing on the park, the company then wants to add a 5,000-square foot retail space near the area and provide a “jewel-box” restaurant in a park setting. It becomes a walkable district that connects all of the retail and living components of the entire project. It’s estimated to have around 50 parking spaces. It also plants to market the development of this area out to another retail developer.
In total, there are two townhome lots, three multifamily lots, a parking lot and a combination of retail/office/commercial for the rest of the facilities.
DevMar Development
DevMar is looking at all of the parcels of Midtown as well. Focusing on the Village Green Park as the center, it plans to expand it to a “newly developed activity park to the south of the fountain park, which will be developed into a combined park feature with common amenities for the residential component of the development, such as a clubhouse, swimming pool and sand volleyball courts.”
This will be a two-block park and will be surrounded on the north, east and south by multi-story residential rental apartments along with retail, restaurants and cafes. DevMar said the intent is to concentrate the restaurants and cafes on Evers and Renfro streets and have them face the park with piazza-style sidewalk dining seating.
Then it aims to include multi-story residential along both sides of Collins Street between Alabama and Renfro streets and have restaurant and retail space on both sides of Collins Street at Alabama Street.
The development is proposed to have a total of four phases.
“Under the development, a total of 18 studios, 374 one-bedroom units and 81 two-bedroom residential apartment units for a total of 473 apartment units with an additional 18,430 square feet of retail, restaurant and café space will be added to Midtown and the Plant City urban center,” the proposal reads.
Green Mills Group
Green Mills is proposing the smallest plan of the four. Instead of tackling the entire area, it is dedicated to making one piece of the larger dream come to life. It proposed to develop 75 to 100 residences for active seniors or workforce housing within a mixed-use, mixed-income, four-story mid-rise building. The ground floor will have a variety of uses including residential amenities, retail and art gallery space.
The plan is to put the building in one of four alternative locations within the CRA-owned properties of Midtown. The count of apartments will depend on which location they land on.
The group also plans to enhance the streetscape of the roads abutting the property and add “decorative pavers, benches, landscape, decorative street lighting, shade trees and store fronts close to the sidewalks.”