In 1961, Sharpe & Co.’s showroom was built on the pie-shaped corner of Platt and Water Streets (now Ashley Blvd.) The $293,000, 27,000 sq ft building was state of the art, featuring 293 light bulbs surrounding the showroom floor to brightly illuminate cars in the large plate glass windows at night. Inside, customers stepped down from the white-floored showroom to a walnut-paneled waiting room with wall-to-wall carpeting and white leather furniture while waiting for service.

V.V. Sharpe was a longtime car guy who opened his first Cadillac dealership in 1933 after managing the Florida Cadillac Company in 1928. Sharpe moved here from their former 12,000 sq ft. office at 205 S. Franklin St, a place they opened in 1948. They had a long run. Around 1970, the name was Sharpe-Taylor Cadillac, and in 1975, the business was Braman’s Bay Cadillac. By the end of that year, it was simply Bay Cadillac. In 1986, the City of Tampa paid $10.8 million for the 2.8 acres of land as part of the plot to build the new convention center. Interestingly, when the land was cleared that year, scientists found the remains of 50 “prehistoric people,” said to be as old as 3,000 years, on the Bay Cadillac land that once housed Fort Brooke. Construction guidelines at the time required that any new work in the central downtown business district be evaluated for archeological artifacts. Bay moved to the corner of Florida and Fletcher Avenues.

A vehicle tunnel under the convention center’s loading dock is now located along that stretch of Platt Street.

Sharpe also owned a used car lot at 408 N Dale Mabry. That lot started as Jim Baldwin’s New Car Sales in 1963, and Shape took over in 1964. A massage parlor and smoke shop now reside on that corner.

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