Review for Seaport Channelside Apartments

The new Seaport Channelside apartments on E Twiggs Street are some of the ugliest and most expensive apartments I have seen in Tampa. After visiting the property I know for sure that these apartments will be one of the worst places to live in downtown Tampa. Here are some of the issues I had with the property.

1. The property location is in a very bad looking and high crime area. At night there is little light on the streets, homeless and/or drunk people wondering around, and cars speeding by. Nothing is in walking distance (Ybor, downtown, Channelside) and there are no consumer locations in the foreseeable future for shopping nearby, just empty retail space. A TECO street car stop is in walking distance, but a one-way trip is $2. There are locations in the building for retail, but none are rented just like in the Grand Central at Kennedy next door. The Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown is also hugging the entire side and back complex which will create additional noise and distraction for the residents who decide to rent.

2. Low income housing yards away. Nothing more needs to be said.

3. Bad traffic planning. Currently E Twiggs is only 4 lanes with no room for expansion, and no traffic light is planned for future exiting residents onto E Twiggs from the parking garage. With the current traffic law, residents would have to stop before entering onto E Twiggs, which would be next to impossible on business days.

4. Price. The apartments are priced way too high. About $1300 for a small one bedroom and $2500 for a three bedroom is way too expensive. For the same price a house can be purchased with a mortgage, instead of throwing away money on a rented apartment.

5. Ascetics. I guess the colors where selected by the Tampa Channelside District, but they are very ugly and distracting. The shape of the will also allow resident to view every move their neighbor makes. And with stained concrete floors (very cheap construction) noise from neighbors and outside traffic will be amplified and transferred all throughout the buildings.