Tampa City Council gives green light to Encore project

The City Council today gave a tentative nod to a multimillion-dollar project to transform the vacant site of a former public housing complex into a new community.

The Encore project, a public-private venture to redevelop the former Central Park Village, has been stalled for several years as project backers struggled to secure federal and state funding needed for road, sewer and other improvements.

In January, the project got back on track after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved a $38 million grant to pay for infrastructure needs.

Before the project gets under way, however, backers need council approval of a proposed development agreement between the city, Tampa Housing Authority and its partner, Bank of America, that outlines permitting and other issues related to the project, which will be constructed under the name Central Park Development Group LLC.

Council members, who will vote on the development covenant this month, gave the proposed redevelopment project a tentative green light at a public hearing this morning.

"It's been a long and difficult road, but we are committed to getting this project done," said Jerome Ryans, president and CEO of the Tampa Housing Authority.

The Central Park project was approved in June 2006, and a year later, the apartment complexes were demolished. Roughly 1,300 residents in about 380 apartments in the neighborhood were relocated to other public housing or federally subsidized homes.

Plans call for building up to 1,513 affordable-housing rental and market-rate units. Eight more buildings - including a grocery store, hotel and market-rate condominiums - have been proposed for the 28-acre site. Most of them would be built by private developers.

Backers of the project will apply to the state to create a special taxing district to pay for street-lighting and other upgrades. Future residents will be assessed for those costs.

Encore is just one piece of an estimated $425 million urban revitalization project from Interstate 275 to Nuccio Parkway, between Cass Street and the Interstate 4 interchange.

The project's backers say it would boost Tampa's economy by creating thousands of jobs - 4,000 short-term construction jobs and about 1,000 permanent positions.

Encore, and its buildings, streets and other amenities, are named after iconic recording legends and musical terminology, a nod to the area's history of showcasing such music greats as James Brown, Ray Charles and others during the segregation era. Officials also are planning to refurbish Perry Harvey Sr. Park and convert a church into a black history museum.