Tampa to get $38M for Encore project

TAMPA - The city of Tampa was notified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that it will receive $38 million in federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to build a shovel-ready project between downtown Tampa and Ybor City on the site of the former Central Park Village apartments.

Encore is a 30-acre urban redevelopment project that has been in the development process for more than four years.

The grant for Encore was submitted as a public-private partnership between the Tampa Housing Authority, the city of Tampa and Banc of America Community Development Corp.

The $38 million in taxpayer dollars will come from the HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2, of which $28 million will go directly to the Encore infrastructure, converting a once-blighted area into a mixed use/mixed income neighborhood with housing, businesses and cultural centers. Another $10 million will be spent on foreclosure mitigation activities in the surrounding area.

Encore plans to offer housing for more than 1,700 residents across a broad social and economic spectrum. It also plans to offer offices, a new hotel, grocery and other retail space, a middle school, church and community park.