On July 24, the City of Tampa’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) approved a $9.7 million grant for the East Tampa Live Learn Development. The proposed project consists of 118 units of affordable housing and the 65,000 square foot East Tampa Innovation Center (ETIC). The funding will support the developer’s subsidy of the housing units and provide funding to complete infrastructure upgrades for the entire site.
The Tampa Bay EDC recruited Integral, the affordable housing developer, as its partner in response to the City of Tampa’s request for a proposal to develop a live learn hub in East Tampa. Integral is headquartered in Atlanta and has offices in Tampa and Miami.
The Live Learn Development was first proposed as a catalytic project in the East Tampa Works report commissioned by the Tampa Bay Economic Prosperity Foundation (TBEPF), our nonprofit affiliate, and delivered to the City of Tampa in 2022.
The proposed housing development, Ashley East Tampa, will provide workforce housing next to an EDC-developed facility that will train local residents for higher wage jobs in high demand industries. The $44 million housing component is the first phase of the Live Learn Development.
This is an incredible win for our community and for East Tampa residents in particular. We’re grateful to the City of Tampa, their staff and the CRA board for supporting East Tampa Works and the Ashley East Tampa housing development. This initiative would not have been possible without the visionary investments from 15 generous donors who contributed nearly $2 million to the Tampa Bay Economic Prosperity Foundation in 2021. The funding they contributed provided seed capital for the economic development initiatives in East Tampa that we are realizing today.Projects like the East Tampa Live Learn Development take time, patience and wide-ranging community support. Tampa is proving once again that it can and will achieve great things. I am truly proud of this latest milestone and the indefatigable efforts of Tony Brown, our VP of Community Development; Kareem Brantley, Integral’s Florida Division President; our board; and our Foundation leaders. There’s so much more to come!
Thank you,
Craig
