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Hillsborough Avenue's Image About To Change

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By ANGELA DELGADO The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2007

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Mainsail Development Group is on a mission to clean up Hillsborough Avenue, and its staff is starting at Hillsborough and Eisenhower Boulevard.

In the works: a landscaping and fountain feature to act as a gateway to Town 'N Country, a new conference center and a 320-unit luxury hotel.

The company has been on Hillsborough since 1998 and has its Mainsail Suites Hotel and Conference Center, the International Academy of Design and Technology and two office complexes on site. In 1998 the hotel was a training facility for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and then IBM. IBM didn't need the property, so it paid off the lease, and now Mainsail is using it as a hotel site, said company President Joe Collier.

The starting point to a new, beautiful Hillsborough Avenue is the landscaping on Hillsborough and Eisenhower. Mainsail hopes to make a shallow retention area into the gateway to Town 'N Country.

"Our intention is to dig deeper and make a pond, put a fountain in it, improve landscaping dramatically and put a nice fence around it," Collier said.

Collier said he is working with the Department of Transportation to find out whether it will allow "Welcome to Town 'N Country" signage.

The hotel site has been through several changes. The company recently acquired 2 acres, where Hillsborough Collision Center sits, to make way for its new conference center.

Currently, the hotel is using office space for its events. The new conference center will have high ceilings appropriate for weddings, bar mitzvahs and other big events.

"Then we'll truly be a full-service hotel, and that's a big deal for us," Collier said.

Along with the conference center, Mainsail is working on the construction of an apartment complex at Hillsborough and George Road, adjacent to the main site. The 11-acre property used to hold a trailer park.

The company plans on starting construction of the $42 million complex in summer. It will include a centrally located pond with a fountain, a swimming pool and fitness center. The gated community will have one- and two-bedroom apartments for about $1,300 in rent.

"The area needs classy apartments there," Collier said. "It's a convenient place for professionals to live."

Pollack Partners are the developers of the complex. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steve Shores said his company chose to build in Tampa because it's a good market.

"I think it'll bring a new fresh design and look to this area, and it'll provide a reasonably priced luxury apartment community to live in that area," Shores said. "There hasn't been one built there in this immediate area in awhile."

The work Mainsail and Pollack Partners is doing to redevelop Hillsborough Avenue hasn't gone unnoticed.

"It's gonna be a real asset to the community," said Bill Browne, chairman of the Town 'N Country Alliance. "Their vision for their property is keeping with our vision of Hillsborough and our overlay."

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.

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