Harbour Island is an island neighborhood within the city limits of

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

and the sub-district within

Downtown Tampa Downtown Tampa is the central business district of Tampa, Florida, United States, and the chief financial district of the Tampa Bay Area. It is second only to Westshore regarding employment in the area. Companies with a major presence downtown i ...

. The ZIP Code serving the area is 33602.Neighborhoods in Tampa Bay, Florida
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Geography

Harbour Island is situated adjacent to

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

across the

Garrison Channel The Garrison Channel is one of several channels for boat traffic in and around the Port of Tampa in the City of Tampa, Florida. The Garrison Channel is anchored by the Channelside District on the East, leads to the Ybor and Sparkman Channel and ...

. Other nearby areas include Davis Islands and

Channelside Channel District is a residential neighborhood in the City of Tampa that includes an entertainment complex, just east of Downtown Tampa, Florida. It is bordered by Ybor Channel on the east and Garrison Channel on the south. Channelside is a nick ...

. The

Tampa Convention Center The Tampa Convention Center is a mid-sized convention center located in downtown Tampa, Florida at the mouth of the Hillsborough River. It has both waterfront views of Tampa Bay and views of the city's skyline. Harbour Island is across the epony ...

is located directly across the Harbour Island Bridge and Channelside is just across Beneficial Drive, both walking distance.

History

Harbour Island was originally known as Seddon Island, which was named after W. L. Seddon, chief engineer for the

Seaboard Air Line Railway The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...

. In 1906, a public hearing was held to plan a new port for the city. Seddon's plans were adopted and soon his company dredged a channel and established a port facility on what was then called Grassy Island. The

Seaboard Coast Line The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...

later sold the island to the Beneficial Land Corporation in 1979 for

residential A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family resid ...

office An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific d ...

and

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

development purposes. The first phase of development did not begin until 1985. Up to that point, the island still housed a phosphate terminal and had freight rail access. Beneficial's chief executive,

Finn M. W. Caspersen Finn Michael Westby Caspersen Sr. (October 27, 1941 – September 7, 2009) was an American financier and philanthropist. A graduate of the Peddie School, Brown University and Harvard Law School, he was chairman and chief executive of B ...

(1941-2009) envisioned transforming the island into a bustling waterfront with offices, shops and restaurants, much like Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Between 1985 and January 1999, Harbour Island was linked to

by the

Harbour Island People Mover The Harbour Island People Mover was an automated guideway transit people mover service in Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east ...

, an automated rubber tired tram manufactured by Otis Transportation Systems that ran on an elevated concrete guideway connecting the Knights Point shopping center on Harbour Island, to the Ft Brooke Parking Garage half of a mile to the north, adjacent to the downtown core on the mainland.

Today

Today, the island consists of mostly private residential areas, including high-rise condos, apartments, row houses, single-family homes and large houses, as well as a yacht club. The island has a

Westin Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline. History Wester ...

hotel, Jackson's Bistro Bar & Sushi restaurant spanning 20,000 square feet boasting special event space, Sunday Brunch, waterfront dining, and a Friday and Saturday nightclub; as well as a Pizza and Sushi Shop that delivers. Located in the center of the island there are small shops; a Coffee Shop that specializes in fresh ingredients for breakfast & lunch, and local hotspot Cafe Dufrain focusing on seasonal cuisine & seafood with waterfront dining. The

TECO Line Streetcar The TECO Line Streetcar is a heritage streetcar transit line in Tampa, Florida, run by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transportation Authority (HART), owned by the city of Tampa, and managed by Tampa Historic Streetcar, Inc. It connects Downtown ...

"in-town" trolley connects the island to downtown and Channelside. NEVs also connect the island to other core neighborhoods such as Hyde Park."Hop Tampa ready to give folks a ride downtown"
, ''St Petersburg Times'', April 18, 2008

References

{{authority control Neighborhoods in Tampa, Florida Planned communities in Florida

Geography

History

Today

See also

References