Downtown Tampa Redevelopment and the Downtown CRA

Through its Downtown Community Redevelopment Area, Tampa is paying for workforce apartments, the rebuilt Herman Massey Park, the Franklin Street upgrade, work on the Straz, Tampa Theatre and Tampa Museum of Art, and the North Downtown housing site.

The city's Downtown CRA page names the cultural buildings first: tax increment money is going to renovations at the Straz, the Tampa Theatre and the Tampa Museum of Art, and to green spaces such as Herman Massey Park and the Kid Mason Community Center (Downtown CRA, City of Tampa). That page shows an update date of February 13, 2026, so the project details below come from dated city releases and the city's project record.

The CRA office that runs these projects is at 306 E Jackson St, Tampa, FL 33602, main office (813) 274-8325 (Downtown CRA). Its menu lists a Downtown Core CRA aerial map and, for the Downtown Non Core area, a legal description and an aerial map, so a downtown Tampa address can sit in either part (Downtown CRA).

It comes from property taxes generated in downtown Tampa: the city says Tax Increment Financing requires certain tax dollars raised inside a CRA boundary to be spent only in that area.

The city restated the rule when it reopened Herman Massey Park in April 2026, calling Tax Increment Financing the key to the agency's work (City of Tampa, April 21, 2026). The Franklin Street release spelled out the practical effect: the $6 million for the Franklin Street Vision comes from the Downtown CRA, using property taxes generated downtown that must be spent on downtown projects, and not from the general City of Tampa budget (City of Tampa, November 15, 2024).

That is why the same council members appear twice: the $6 million was supported by Council members serving on the CRA, and in November 2024 Tampa City Council members unanimously approved the Tampa Downtown Partnership's Franklin Street plan, with the money spread over three years (City of Tampa). The release promised a start and finish timetable in the months ahead; no newer Franklin Street schedule appears on the Downtown CRA page fetched on October 18, 2026 (Downtown CRA).

The same district-by-district logic runs through the CRA's grants: the August 2026 release says qualified commercial grant applications will be competitively evaluated by CRA district (City of Tampa, August 31, 2026).

A mixed-income neighborhood: in March 2026 the City of Tampa selected PMG Affordable to redevelop four city and CRA properties between N Tampa Street and E Ashley Drive, with 1,150 homes proposed and 70% of them affordable or workforce housing.

The properties include the old Army Navy Surplus Market store and the Royal lot, and the development team also includes the Tampa Housing Authority, Bank of America Community Development Company and DuCon (City of Tampa, March 9, 2026). CRA Chairman Luis Viera called it the first affordable housing development in Tampa's Central Business District (City of Tampa).

The numbers moved during the process, and the official sources do not all match. The April 2025 announcement put the site at roughly four acres, noted that the city bought the Army-Navy Surplus Market site in December 2020, and set a minimum of 750 units, half of them affordable (City of Tampa, April 29, 2025). The March 2026 release describes the minimum as 800 units and the winning plan as 1,150 units (City of Tampa). The citywide housing release in May 2026 says more than 1,100 units will be added at the Army/Navy site, more than 700 of them for income-eligible households (City of Tampa, May 2026).

Two connections were floated with it. The Ashley Drive on-ramp to I-275 beside the land would, if approved, be redesigned for pedestrian safety, and transportation officials envision the streetcar eventually running through the area up to Palm Avenue (City of Tampa). The city framed both as possibilities, one if approved and one envisioned, and placed the site just blocks from the Riverwalk and the Straz Center (City of Tampa).

By funding the conversion of new market-rate apartments into income-restricted workforce units: in May 2026 the Downtown CRA put $4 million into converting 22 apartments at The Residences at 801 East Whiting, a new 104-unit building, into workforce housing for 50 years.

Those Tampa units are for households earning 80% to 140% of Area Median Income, which the city translates as a single-income household making $64,250 to $112,420. Restricted rents start at $1,606 a month at 80% AMI, while similar market-rate units start around $2,100 (City of Tampa, May 12, 2026).

The CRA also runs a standing Unit Creation and Conversion program, under which it collaborates with developers to create affordable units; it is open to qualified real estate developers whose projects serve households at or below 140% AMI. The award caps out at $350,000 per affordable unit, and the affordability period runs 50 years (Tampa CRA, Unit Creation and Conversion).

The scale shows how much the deeper discounts cost the Tampa CRA: the maximum subsidy for a 3-bedroom unit is $350,000 at 30% AMI and $75,000 at 140% AMI (Tampa CRA).

Herman Massey Park reopened in April 2026 after a CRA-funded rebuild of the 21,000-square-foot downtown Tampa park, with a raised deck designed to preserve seven live oaks, an improved dog park and a new sculpture.

The 3,200-square-foot deck has moveable furniture and was laid out to keep the existing oaks; the dog park now uses artificial turf and other durable surfaces; and the sculpture by Cuban-born artist Alexandre Arrechea nods to the nearby Tampa Theatre (City of Tampa, April 21, 2026).

The cost depends on which city page is read. The reopening release calls it a $2 million project funded by the Tampa CRA (City of Tampa). The capital project page for the same work, PR-22017 in Council District 5, lists an estimated cost of $1,712,253 from the Community Redevelopment Agency (Herman Massey Park Rehabilitation).

That project page is also out of date. On October 18, 2026 it still showed Construction in Progress with a planned end date of 02/28/2026, about six months after the park reopened (City of Tampa project page). For the Massey Park work, the April 21, 2026 release is the more recent city statement.

Two matching commercial grants are open to downtown Tampa owners from September 1 through November 1, 2026, and on October 14, 2026 the CRA announced the first award of its non-matching Commercial Design Grant, worth up to $150,000 in services.

The Commercial Special Projects Grant provides matching funds of up to $999,999, and the Commercial Development Grant provides matching funds of $1 million or more for transformational commercial property improvement projects that may fall outside the scope of standard CRA grants but advance redevelopment goals (City of Tampa, August 31, 2026). Both cover the eight designated Community Redevelopment Areas the city lists, including Downtown, the Channel District, Ybor City and Tampa Heights Riverfront. Eligible applicants are commercial property owners, commercial tenants with owner consent and governmental entities; residential projects, most new construction and projects already underway are not eligible. Eligible work must need a City of Tampa building or site permit, and applicants must first hold a pre-application meeting with the CRA's Economic Development or Project Management Division (City of Tampa).

The earlier version of the special projects grant paid for windows, door restoration and storm shutters at the Tampa Firefighter's Museum in downtown Tampa (City of Tampa).

The Commercial Design Grant is non-matching, tops out at $150,000 in services, and is delivered by a pre-qualified CRA-contracted architectural, engineering and consulting firm, supporting concept design, site layout, renderings, construction documents and feasibility planning. Grants are awarded on a first-qualified, first-awarded basis while fiscal year funds remain available. Commercial property owners and commercial tenants with owner consent inside a Tampa redevelopment area may apply, but non-tax-generating properties, residential projects, new construction and projects already commenced are not eligible (City of Tampa, October 14, 2026).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the City of Tampa Downtown CRA page, its capital project record and the city's CRA news releases from 2024 to October 2026.