TAMPA, Fla. — More than 200 trucks were expected to deliver 2,300 cubic yards of concrete Friday night into Saturday morning at the future site of the Pendry Residences Tampa. Developers said it’s the biggest concrete pour downtown in years.

What You Need To Know

  • More than 200 trucks and 2,300 cubic yards of concrete were expected to be used in a major concrete pour at the Pendry Residences Tampa

  • The concrete will form the foundation 38-story tower

  • The Pendry will be home to more than 200 luxury condos and 200 hotel rooms

  • The pour is expected to wrap up sometime Saturday morning 

The pour started at the site along the Riverwalk just before 10 p.m. Friday. According to Two Roads Development, it will become the foundation of the Pendry’s 38-story tower that will be home to 200 luxury condos and 200 hotel rooms.

“It’s a very big positive,” said Chris Blowers.

Blowers owns Greiner’s Fine Men’s Clothing on East Whiting Street, about two blocks from the construction site.

“Here, we’ve got mostly sport coats these days since the world is more about sport coats than they are suits,” Blowers said, gesturing to a rack in his shop.

More than fashion has changed in the 43 years since Greiner’s opened its doors. Blowers credits development on Water Street with bringing new life downtown.

“It’s brought the right type of people to downtown Tampa, which has brought the restaurants, which has brought other things going on,” he said. “We’ve been the lone, you know, kind of retail store of downtown for many, many years. So, it’s nice to see other people coming down to shop.”

Blowers said he thinks the Pendry will build on that. He said it’s not the first time developers had big plans for the site.

“I had several customers that put deposits down on the Trump building that was going to be their Trump Tower. When that fell apart, the person who bought that property from those developers is also a customer of mine. He had big ideas for it, could not get the financing secured. So, it was almost kind of like that property was haunted,” Blowers said.

“Tampa has really changed significantly over the last handful of years. So, it’s really ready for a project like this,” said Jon Orebaugh with Two Roads Development, the Pendry’s project director.

Orebaugh said the concrete pour marks a milestone in the project. It comes after crews drilled 230 piles, some as deep as 280 ft. The developer said Florida’s unique soil was taken into account for the process.

“This is a very challenging site,” said Orebaugh. “Again, like I said, we’ve done a ton of work to get to this point. Now, we’re about to place the first of several large, foundational elements that really starts to tie the building together.”

Construction is expected to take two years. Blowers said he’s looking forward to watching this latest change progress.

“I think Tampa, obviously, is a city on the rise,” he said. “A lot of great things happening here, and we just hope to be a part of it.”

Orebaugh said a number of steps are also being taken to make sure the building holds up to severe weather. Its base level will be 15 feet above sea level, it will have redundant generators, and it will also have a flood prevention system similar to one used by Tampa General Hospital.