East Tampa

East Tampa is a 7.5 square-mile part of the City of Tampa that sits between Downtown, the Port of Tampa and the University of South Florida.

The City of Tampa East Tampa CRA page, updated February 5, 2026, describes the area as ideally situated between those three anchors, with convenient access to three interstates and Tampa International Airport. The city says the community continues to attract private investment throughout the 7.5 square-mile area, especially along Hillsborough Avenue.

The East Tampa History page places the district's southern boundary on I-4 and its western boundary on I-275, so the two interstates frame its oldest blocks. The city's own project lists name streets inside the district such as North 22nd Street, East Lake Avenue, East Osborne Avenue, North 19th Street and East Curtis Street.

Public art is part of the CRA record as well. The East Tampa Public Art page, updated September 24, 2026, lists murals and public art at the Tampa Police Department District III building and a St. Benedict Convent sheet, filed alongside the district's redevelopment plans, annual reports and tax increment financing reports.

East Tampa became part of the city in three annexations, in 1911, 1923 and 1953.

The East Tampa History page states that the southwestern portion was annexed in 1911, an area roughly bounded by 26th Street on the east, 26th Avenue on the north, I-4 on the south and I-275 on the west. In 1923 the city line moved out to 40th Street on the east and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the north, together with a piece of land running along 15th Street from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard north to Hillsborough Avenue. The remainder of the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Area was incorporated in 1953.

The City of Tampa draws a practical conclusion from those dates. Because East Tampa has been part of Tampa for at least 50 years, the history page notes, the infrastructure put in place when its blocks were platted, including potable water, wastewater and the transportation system, is reaching the end of its useful service. That page carries an update date of October 1, 2023.

Middleton High School opened in East Tampa in 1934 as the area's first public high school for African American students.

A 2017 City of Tampa proclamation declaring George S. Middleton High School Legacy Day states that the school opened its doors in East Tampa in 1934 as the first high school for African American students in Hillsborough County, and that it was named for George Schroeder Middleton, a local humanitarian, businessman and supporter of public education. Hillsborough County describes it as the first public high school for African American students in Tampa; the two official sources frame the first differently, one by county and one by city.

The proclamation records that the county desegregation plan closed the high school in 1971 and formed Middleton Junior High School, and that in 2002, through the efforts of alumni and supporters, the Hillsborough County School Board rebuilt the high school on North 22nd Street, thirty-one years after it closed. The county article adds that the school has overcome two fires, marks more than 90 years of history, and is now nationally recognized for its focus on science, technology, engineering and math.

The proclamation also names campus facilities that honor alumni and faculty, including Abe Brown Stadium, the Fred Hearns Pavilion, the James B. Green Agriculture and Science Building and the Theresa A. Manual Track, named for a physical education teacher the city describes as the first African American from Florida to represent the United States at the 1948 Olympics. The school's cafeteria also served as the meeting room for the city's East Tampa Recreation Complex input sessions in 2023.

The East Tampa CRA is paying for a plan update, housing sites, the Gator Building, a cooler North 22nd Street walk, park accessibility and the Memorial Park Cemetery fence.

The East Tampa CRA Projects and Programs page, updated September 24, 2026, lists each project with its CRA investment and status.

The plan update will outline development, project and programming initiatives for the next 5 to 10 years. For housing, the Tampa CRA bought several properties southeast of the intersection of East Osborne Avenue and North 19th Street for affordable housing, and in September 2023 it bought a former church property on East Curtis Street that will undergo environmental cleanup and demolition, with the goal of housing for lower-income individuals and families.

The Gator Building was built in 1951, and the CRA is assisting with redeveloping it into a business incubator hub, food hall and event plaza. The stormwater pond concept for North 22nd Street adds shade and, where possible, replaces the sidewalk next to the roadway with meandering paths that route pedestrians closer to shade and the pond. Several of the status lines still refer to FY25 decisions, so the page itself does not say whether those steps have since happened.

The city owns Memorial Park Cemetery and is funding a new fence there, while CRA money improves park accessibility and a 10.2-acre recreation complex is being built.

The programs page describes Memorial Park Cemetery as a historical landmark in East Tampa that opened in 1919, with World War I veterans buried there. The city purchased the cemetery in May 2023, and on June 20, 2024 the Tampa City Council approved funding for improvements to the fence, with the goal of keeping the cemetery clean and secure.

The five-year Parks ADA Program, approved by the CRA board for FY23 through FY27, improves accessibility and inclusive play at Alfred Barnes Jr Park, Borrell Park, Clarence Fort Freedom Trail, Cuscaden Park, Cyrus Greene Park, Giddens Park, Grant Park, Highland Pines Park, the Jackson Heights NFL YET Center, Ragan Park and Williams Park.

The largest East Tampa recreation project sits with the City of Tampa Parks and Recreation Department, which is combining the Fair Oaks Community Center, Herbert D. Carrington Sr. Community Lake and several recently acquired adjacent properties into a 10.2-acre East Tampa Recreation Complex, adding a new senior center and a full-size gymnasium. In July 2022, Skanska USA Building Inc. was selected to lead the design-build team. The project page, updated April 10, 2026, still says public outreach begins February 2023 with construction being complete by 2026, and the project timeline, last updated December 11, 2023, ends with a December 19, 2023 pre-bid session for subcontractors, so neither page gives a current construction date.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the City of Tampa East Tampa CRA overview, history, programs and public art pages, the East Tampa Recreation Complex page and timeline, the 2017 Middleton proclamation and the Hillsborough County Middleton article.