TAMPA - Following a nationwide trend, a new 193-room Westin Hotel under construction on Courtney Campbell Parkway in Tampa, will also include condominiums.

Developer Dilip Kanji said the decision to sell 20 condominium residences on the top two floors of the 14-story building will help leverage rising construction costs for the $59 million project.

The condominiums, ranging in price from $600,000 to $1.2 million, should reduce development costs by about 8 percent, Kanji said. Florida's building boom, fueled by new construction demand and hurricane repair, has raised costs of key materials including drywall, concrete and copper 25 percent to 40 percent during the past several years, he says.

Condominium units have become a standard feature of high-end hotel developments today, and not entirely without controversy, because the units are occupied by residents instead of tourists.

In Clearwater Beach, new hotels aimed at bringing high-end tourists to the area have been scaled back to allow for condominium units.

The Westin Hotel & Residences is the first hotel-condominium project under construction in Tampa, but others are on the drawing boards.

The projects offer the lure of hotel services: room service, airport van pick-up and a concierge to lure condominium buyers to the properties .Construction began on the Westin last month and is slated to be finished in October 2007.

Reporter Randy Diamond can be reached at (813) 259-8144 or

rdiamond@tampatrib.com.