TAMPA - Can downtown handle yet another condo?

More than a dozen developers with plans to build condominiums are vying for lenders to fund their projects. In this slow housing market, persuading a lender to move forward is becoming a next to impossible pitch to make.

The Miami developer building The Slade at Channelside said it succeeded. It reached the 60 percent sales quota it needed to secure a loan of more than $66 million from Wells Fargo Bank, the company said Friday. With financing in hand, construction on the eight-story, 280-unit complex on the corner of 11th Street and Washington Street is to start Monday.

'We feel we have a very strong project, a great design and a great location,' said Juan Porro, president of Cobalt Development Group.

The nod from the lender, Porro added, also may be enough to persuade buyers on the sidelines to deposit down payments on the remaining condos. Units were originally priced from $250,000 to $500,000.

There are 31 residential developments either under construction or planned for downtown. Those represent 11,608 units in the works, according to Tampa records. Thirteen buildings opened in recent years, and many of those condos units are back on the market for sale.

Some real estate experts say downtown may be oversaturated with condos, and developers that don't have financing in place by now may see their projects fizzle. That makes The Slade's accomplishment a feat, said Mark Vitner, an economist with Wachovia, the financial services company based in Charlotte, N.C.

'It's not a slam dunk by any means,' Vitner said. 'But it certainly increases the chances of this condo getting built.'

Wachovia estimates there is an oversupply of 150,000 homes in Florida, 50,000 of which are condos.

Even so, Vitner said he is optimistic about Florida's long-term real estate outlook.

'Florida, and Tampa Bay particularly, remain incredibly attractive places to relocate, and that will ultimately matter more to the success of this and other projects than market conditions.'

Others aren't so sure. Jack McCabe, owner of McCabe Research Consulting in Deerfield Beach, watches the condo market in Florida and said he is surprised Wells Fargo approved the loan for the Slade.

'Even in two years when this project is finished, there will still be record inventory and price declines,' McCabe said. 'It's a possibility prices could drop 20 percent over the next two years. Buyers who contract on a condo at a certain price now may find that prices have dropped below that price by the time they close on the loan.'

Porro, of the development company building Slade, said construction money to build condos in this market is drying up, and he agrees that projects without financing now are unlikely to succeed.

He said, though, that he also thinks the financing his project now has is enough to pave the way to reality.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at sbehnken@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7804.