REAL ESTATE INTERVIEW
Evolution The Tampa Housing Authority is more than an affordable housing manager. It is focused on redevelopment to meet community needs
Leroy Moore COO – Tampa Housing Authority How has the role of the of the Tampa Housing Authority evolved over the last few years to better service the community? The Housing Authority has evolved to not only manage affordable housing, but also to redevelop this housing into real estate that functions as more than just a roof over someone’s head. We consistently ask ourselves what else does a community need? A community needs jobs, quality food and transportation accessibility, which brings in the need for collaboration with transportation agencies in the region. We can meet the needs of the community by developing housing, especially affordable and attainable housing, around accessible transit options. Great transit translates into better housing costs. What steps is the Tampa Housing Authority taking to revitalize the 28-acre area now known as the Encore District? Seventy-five years ago, the Tampa Housing Authority developed a 28-acre superblock of public housing on the doorstep of what is now the Downtown district. Seventy-five years later, we are redeveloping that site and realizing that its potential today is far greater than what was ever imagined back then. Instead of just having a 28-acre single-use affordable housing community, we now have 12 city blocks of diverse development called the Encore District. Encore will be a LEED Gold neighborhood development community. All the buildings have a commitment to be LEED Silver or higher. We replaced the affordable and workforce housing and increased the number of affordable units on that exact same footprint. We are also adding other uses like hotels, museums, schools, market-rate housing and grocery stores all within the same 28-acre area.
What are the main challenges that the Tampa Housing Authority is facing? There are a couple of challenges. One is cost, which seems to be ever increasing. The construction workforce is becoming more scarce, and there is a large demand from projects competing for a limited workforce. Cost is going to continue to rise as a result of that. There is also the fact that Tampa’s regulatory process for getting these deals permitted and in the ground has to be improved. Our new mayor is actually putting a lot of effort and thought into this, so I believe that will help mitigate this problem. www.capitalanalyticsassociates.com
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