Drew Park in Tampa, Florida

Drew Park takes its name from Drew Field, the grass airfield that opened in 1928 as Tampa's first municipal airport.

According to the City of Tampa neighborhood profile, Drew Park was originally Drew Field, named for cattleman and land developer John H. Drew, and the field was a 130-acre grass airfield that opened in 1928. The Tampa International Airport newsroom gives the exact date: the field was dedicated as Tampa's municipal airport on February 22, 1928, and was named after John H. Drew, who owned the land on which Tampa International Airport would eventually be built.

That airfield is the direct ancestor of two places on the modern Tampa map. Its runways became Tampa International Airport, and the land along its eastern edge, where the federal government built barracks and offices, became the Drew Park neighborhood. The airport notes that it is approaching its 100th anniversary in a few years, counted from that 1928 dedication.

During World War II the federal government took over Drew Field and turned it into an Army base with airstrips, barracks, field hospitals and a prisoner of war camp.

The City of Tampa profile lists those elements, describing the camp as a German and Italian POW camp. The Museum of Florida History, part of the Florida Department of State, adds that the U.S. Government first leased the field as a sub post to MacDill Army Airfield, that heavy bombers began operation at Drew in May 1940, and that once MacDill was complete Drew became a separate base and headquarters for the III Fighter Command, encompassing fifteen square miles and hosting as many as 25,000 personnel.

The museum reports that one thousand ten-man combat bombing crews trained at Drew during the war, along with large signal air-warning training and engineering aviation training. It also describes a prisoner camp three miles from Drew Field that held 395 Germans between August 1944 and March 1946; the prisoners arrived from Camp Blanding to work in quartermaster workshops, kitchens, canteens and warehouses. The museum entry names only German prisoners, while the city profile says German and Italian.

The war also left a road. The City of Tampa states that Dale Mabry Highway was built in 1943 to link Drew Field with MacDill Air Force Base to the south. That highway now forms the eastern boundary of Drew Park.

When the war ended, the airfield went back to the City of Tampa in 1946 and the base area on its east side became the Drew Park neighborhood.

The Museum of Florida History states that Drew Army Airfield was returned to the City of Tampa in 1946 and became Tampa International Airport, and the airport reports that the first international flights began on December 15, 1946. The airfield kept flying; the base buildings on its eastern side took a different path.

Tampa International Airport describes that eastern strip directly: on the east side of Drew Field, the federal government developed a military base complete with barracks, field hospitals, and military offices, and today that area is known as Drew Park, home to Hillsborough Community College, Steinbrenner Field, and a mix of residences and local businesses. The same article notes propellers on signs marking the entrance to the neighborhood and pressed into its sidewalks, and says some original World War II era structures still stand, including the original base theater at the corner of West Alva and North Hubert Avenue.

The airport history also points to a surviving fragment inside the airfield fence. Pilots landing from the north on runway 19L pass, just before touchdown, a paint-marked area of cement that was part of the original Drew Field airfield; it is now used to test painting equipment and as a training area for airport law enforcement K-9 teams.

Drew Park is one of the City of Tampa's Community Redevelopment Areas, a district where growth in taxable value funds local redevelopment projects.

The City of Tampa CRA FAQ explains that Florida law, Chapter 163, Part III, lets local governments designate a CRA when conditions such as substandard or inadequate structures, a shortage of affordable housing or inadequate infrastructure exist. A redevelopment trust fund then collects revenue from the incremental growth in taxable value after the CRA is created, and the FAQ states that all such funds must be used for specific redevelopment purposes within that area. The city counts over 140 CRAs in Florida.

The Drew Park CRA legal description draws the district in Sections 4, 5, 8 and 9 of Township 29 South, Range 18 East, Hillsborough County. The boundary starts where Dale Mabry Highway (S.R. 600) meets Tampa Bay Boulevard, works west and north along Woodlawn Avenue, Lauber Way, Ohio Avenue, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, Hesperides Street and Crest Avenue to West Shore Boulevard, runs north to Hillsborough Avenue (S.R. 580), and returns east to Dale Mabry Highway.

The Drew Park CRA page, updated May 7, 2026, frames the district's pitch around location: proximity to Tampa International Airport, Hillsborough Community College, professional sports and recreational facilities, and major employers. It calls Drew Park one of the few remaining areas in Tampa with affordable industrial land and space, and reports that Electric Supply recently completed a 35,000-square-foot expansion while major infrastructure and streetscape improvements are underway on Lois Avenue.

The Drew Park CRA lists three active projects, led by a $2,486,797 streetscape project on Lois and Grady avenues that is under construction.

The Drew Park CRA Programs page, updated September 24, 2026, gives each project's CRA investment and status.

The streetscape project covers N. Lois Avenue from W. Tampa Bay Boulevard, including its roundabout, to W. Hillsborough Avenue, and N. Grady Avenue from W. MLK Boulevard to W. Crest Avenue, with recommendations for the roundabout, intersections and the Lois Avenue and Hillsborough Avenue gateway. The connectivity project is meant to identify and recommend mobility, sidewalk and safety projects in public rights of way across the CRA, in partnership with the city's Mobility Division and Parks and Recreation Department. The park would be a new neighborhood park on Hubert Avenue.

The City of Tampa neighborhood profile adds two capital entries in Council District 6: a Drew Park CRA Mobility, Connectivity, and Safety Improvements project with an estimated cost of $9,504,000 funded by the Community Redevelopment Agency, and resurfacing of MLK Boulevard from Air Cargo to Dale Mabry estimated at $950,000 from the Local Option Gas Tax.

Drew Park today mixes auto dealerships, shops, light industry and housing around the main campus of Hillsborough Community College and a spring training ballpark.

The City of Tampa profile sums up the land use: auto dealerships along much of the eastern Dale Mabry Highway boundary, shopping and restaurants on the northern Hillsborough Avenue boundary, and, because of mixed-use zoning, a core of light industry along with housing. The same profile states that Drew Park encompasses the main campus of Hillsborough Community College.

Baseball is the district's best known tenant. According to the Yankees' George M. Steinbrenner Field page on MLB.com, the ballpark was built in 1996 as a 31-acre complex and serves as spring home to the New York Yankees and summer home to the Yankees' Class A-Advanced affiliate, the Tampa Tarpons. It was renamed on March 27, 2008, following two unanimous resolutions by the Hillsborough County Commission and the Tampa City Council. The city profile still uses older names, calling the park Legends Field and the home of the Tampa Yankees.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the City of Tampa Drew Park profile, the three Drew Park CRA pages and the CRA FAQ, the Museum of Florida History Drew Army Airfield entry, the Tampa International Airport history article and the Yankees ballpark page.