167 windows, 13-foot ceilings: A closer look at the Ybor cigar factory to be converted to apartments
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 9, 2014

The asbestos siding that covers the exterior of the old Oliva Tobacco Co. building in Ybor City disguises the property's potential - it's covering up 167 windows - but it's also done a good job of preserving the property.

Darryl Shaw, the CEO of BluePearl Veterinary in Tampa, is planning to redevelop the building into about 38 apartments. A longtime advocate of Ybor revitalization, Shaw owns a number of properties there in a separate venture from the veterinary business.

"It's a wonderful old building - it's all wood,” Shaw said Tuesday. "It's wonderfully preserved. If you look at it now, the exterior, the siding that's been on there for 50-plus years - it's actually done a wonderful job of preserving the building and it's in generally very nice condition.”

The project is part of Shaw's ongoing efforts to restore Ybor City to its heyday of a thriving urban neighborhood with a diversity of ethnicities and religions living there.

"All the ingredients are there, and Ybor is going to see that transformation again,” he said. "and I think it's in the near future.”

Built in 1900, Shaw said the former factory is one of the oldest wooden structures in Florida. Historic rehabilitation and adaptive reuse projects are more expensive than new construction, because of the nature of the work, and costs can shift as construction progresses and more is revealed about the state of the building.

The plans are navigating the city approval process, and Shaw said he doesn't anticipate beginning construction before early 2015. The apartments will be studios or one-bedroom units, and each of the building's three stories have 13-foot ceilings.

He's also planning to seek historic tax credits and said it was too soon to have rent projections.

"We want to preserve anything we can,” he said.

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.