TAMPA - A controversial $54 million Channel District apartment project remains stalled by a lack of financing but gained a little more time Thursday when Tampa Port Authority commissioners approved two consecutive six-month purchase options.

If the project moves forward, if will look much different from the pair of 30-story condominium towers planned in 2003 when the Clearwater-based Byrd Corp. won rights to develop the 31/2-acre site. The property is on Garrison Channel between Channelside Bay Plaza and the St. Pete Times Forum.

Instead, the project would become a five-story apartment complex with 250 residences, the same number planned for the condominium, developer Brooks Byrd told port authority commissioners.

The agreement Thursday would increase the purchase price of the land by $300,000 to $10.57 million if the longer option were exercised.

However, there is no guarantee financing will be obtained, given the tightening of the credit market, the developers said.

The consecutive purchase options give the developer up to another year to obtain financing on the project.

In an agreement forged with neighboring Harbour Island residents in 2006, Byrd agreed to slash retail space, including a large urban grocery, from 88,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet of mixed retail space. That would include a coffee shop, a pizza restaurant and a cleaners.

The Port of Tampa Maritime Industries Association opposed the contract extension, saying the property should be used to take advantage of the adjacent deepwater berth.

However, the port staff said the space is too limited to permit another cruise ship at the nearby cruise terminal and that the channel area would remain available to small vessels such as the dinner cruise yacht that has used the berth.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.