New downtown Tampa apartments reflect a growing trend: Short-term, fully furnished rentals
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 12, 2022

When AVE Tampa Riverwalk opens in late September, up to one-third of its 353 apartments will operate as fully furnished, short-term rentals.

Korman Communities, based in suburban Philadelphia, bought the property in a partnership with Colorado-based RXR Realty earlier this year for $124 million. The two firms formed their partnership in 2021 to target properties like AVE, said Lea Anne Welsh, chief operating officer of Korman and president of the AVE brand.

The partnership, Welsh said, is looking to develop or acquire multifamily properties “in desirable markets where people are migrating to, where people want to live.”

Korman and RXR aren’t the only investors to take note of the demand for short-term rentals in the Tampa Bay region. In Water Street Tampa’s Asher apartment tower, 97 of its 490 units operate as short-term, furnished apartments under the Roost flag. Ybor City’s Alliant Partners has teamed up with a Los Angeles developer to bring the concept to the historic district. In St. Petersburg, a project that began life as a hotel will open as fully furnished studio apartments in 2023.

Across the U.S., startups are moving into the short-term rental space and capturing high-dollar backings, TechCrunch reported in late August. In Atlanta, apartment giant Greystar is looking to retain a cut of the money tenants make renting out their units on Airbnb by allowing the practice through a contract.

Korman, Welsh says, was a pioneer of the short-term rental concept in the 1960s. These days, she said, it’s a market with so many demand drivers, from corporate housing to remote workers, snowbirds, divorce and disaster relief.

“We cast a wide net for our users. Life in transition is a big one,” she said. “For so long, the furnished concept was geared only toward business travel.”

Still, these properties are a boon to the efforts of economic developers.

“We’re aware of some of these new developments and include them in our collection of business assets when talking with prospective new employers," Steve Morey, senior vice president of economic development at the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council, said in a statement. "Any amenity that we can offer to make the transition to Tampa more convenient for business leaders and employees helps us stay competitive.”

AVE Tampa is the company’s first AVE-branded property in Florida, though it operates hotels under a different banner in South Florida. The partnership, Welsh said, is actively looking for more AVE properties in Tampa Bay, Orlando and a stretch of the South Florida coast from Fort Lauderdale to Coral Gables.

The operators haven’t settled on a total number of units that will operate as short-term rentals within AVE Tampa, Welsh said. It’ll be between 25% and 35% percent of the property, or anywhere from 88 to 124 units.

AVE includes 12,000 square feet of street-level storefronts, and four concepts have already committed to the property: Pacific Counter, BARE Blends, Melting Pot Social and Flatbread & Butter.

“By virtue of what our product is, it’s temporary,” Welsh said. “So it’s the greatest when we hear that people don’t want to leave.”