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The future of Tampa's downtown riverfront could hinge on redeveloping an area that includes the aging North Boulevard Homes public housing apartments.
Move the tenants and demolish the 682 apartments, and that would create a 40-acre site near the Hillsborough River ripe for mixed-use, mixed-income development.
That, at least, was a key recommendation Friday from a study group assembled by the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit education and research group based in Washington, D.C.
"I think you've got all the ingredients to be a real national model ... of how you rebuild urban neighborhoods," said one member of the study team, Cathy Crenshaw, a commercial real estate executive from Birmingham, Ala.
The institute's group consisted of experts in economic development, government, land use and real estate development who volunteer to help communities work on development challenges.
The group spent the week looking at the riverfront and talking to local officials, business leaders, residents and developers, then delivered its report to city officials, business owners and residents at the Tampa Convention Center.
They focused on an area mainly on the south and west bank of the river, north of Interstate 275 and east of Rome Avenue. It includes about 140 acres and 7,200 feet of river frontage. More than 80 percent of it is owned by the city, School Board or Tampa Housing Authority.
For the full article, visit the Tampa Bay Times.
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