Tampa city leaders approve $35M to jumpstart work for Ybor Harbor waterfront development

Ybor Harbor development

Tampa City Council’s Community Redevelopment Agency has approved $35 million in infrastructure funding to kick-start Ybor Harbor. The funding will be used over the next five years to begin construction on repairing the seawall, roads and public improvements. FOX 13's Briona Arradondo reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - Construction can now move forward with a long-neglected industrial area along Tampa’s waterfront, transforming it into a mixed-use destination called Ybor Harbor.

The backstory:

Sitting right by the Selmon Expressway, the industrial area connecting Channelside and Ybor City has seen better days. By Tampa City Council Chairman Alan Clendenin's count, that was more than 50 years ago.

"It lacks everything and it needs everything. The area right now, it’s completely undeveloped. You have waterfront property that’s just crying for some attention," Clendenin, the councilman for District 1 At-Large, said. "If anybody drives by here, they see abandoned silos, they see cracked concrete and just trash blowing in the wind."

By the numbers:

On Thursday, Tampa City Council’s Community Redevelopment Agency approved $35 million in infrastructure funding for Ybor Harbor, a project by local developer Darryl Shaw to transform a U-shaped area into Tampa’s latest waterfront hotspot.

"It’s really a piece of the puzzle that’s been missing. We built out Water Street. We built out Channelside. We built out GasWorx, Encore, Ybor City," Clendenin said.

Renderings show the area bordering Channelside Drive to Adamo Drive and 19th Street. The project plans to connect the Tampa Riverwalk for pedestrians and make Ybor Harbor into a mixed-use development with housing, restaurants and green space. The project’s total infrastructure investment is estimated to be $211.5 million. That includes the newly approved $35 million in city funds, which will be paid in $7 million increments over five years, starting in 2029, Clendenin said.

"We pay out as that infrastructure is constructed, so it’s going to the sewers and the water pipes and the sidewalks and those kind of public types of facilities," Clendenin said.

What's next:

City leaders said dirt can start moving now for Ybor Harbor. It's just a matter of when.

"Everything that this project is going to be offering, I think, is what it needs," District 5 Tampa City Councilwoman Naya Young said. "I remember Channelside when I was a teenager, early 20s. So to see where it has evolved to now, I think is good."

FOX 13 reached out to the developer, Darryl Shaw’s office, for a comment about Thursday’s vote but did not hear back.