By JANIS D. FROELICH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 26, 2007

TAMPA - Sitting around a pool at the Element condominium tower, a resident will be able to go online from an iPod docking station and see video of who's in the lobby for a visit.

Once their guest has settled into a chaise lounge, the two friends might order Italian takeout online from a nearby restaurant.

At Element's sales center, 507 N. Franklin St., prospective buyers can get a glimpse of the technology that will be available when the 35-story tower opens in early 2009.

'Technology has a gadget side and a functional one,' said Greg Minder, president of intowngroup, a local development company building the tower with Atlanta-based Novare Group. 'We hope this works to make life easier.'

As Minder and his staff work at selling the 395 residences in Element, 808 N. Franklin St., they hope one appeal will be the Home Automation, Lifestyle Organization intranet system, or HALO. From personal computers, laptops or cell phones, residents will be able to conduct the business of high-rise living, from changing the air conditioning setting to checking on an expected package.

Minder said the target audience for the condos, priced from $216,000 to $600,000, is ages 25 to 40.

For a recent demonstration, Daniel Bassett, Novare's chief information officer, showed how residents at the company's 36-story Viewpoint in Atlanta and 44-story 360 in Austin, Texas, perform such tasks as chatting with neighbors in an online room or checking minutes of a residential association meeting.

Bassett also showed how residents can gauge their electricity use against the average for similar units.

And then there's the small screen in the elevator: A resident presses his thumb on a biometric box and gets instant information on the nearby screen, such as notification of dry cleaning waiting at the 24-hour concierge's desk.

The HALO system won't cost residents extra, Bassett said. But they will have to pay for equipment if they want the information flashed on their TV screens.

All these bells and whistles lit up Matt Tucker, a senior at Tampa Preparatory School who plans to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Tucker attended the HALO demonstration with Paul Ayres, marketing manager of the Tampa Downtown Partnership, where Tucker is an intern.

'My generation would love this kind of thing,' Tucker said.

Reporter Janis D. Froelich can be reached at jfroelich@tampatrib.com or (813) 835-2104.