Downtown's historic Tampa Union Station could find new purpose as events venue
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 17, 2016

The historic Tampa Union Station could soon find a new purpose as a special events venue.

The city has issued a request for proposals for catering, banquet and event management services at the station, which is at 601 N. Nebraska Ave., between downtown Tampa and the Channel district. Proposals are due Oct. 27; a pre-proposal meeting was held Monday.

The city issued the RFP at the urging of Friends of Tampa Union Station, a group of citizens concerned with the preservation of the station, which was built in 1912 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The nonprofit group felt there was a "missed opportunity to generate funds for the upkeep" of the station, said Bob McDonaugh, the city's economic development director, so the city issued the RFP to gauge interest in the space.

Five companies were present at the meeting, McDonaugh said. The names of those present were not immediately available Monday afternoon.

The building still functions as an Amtrak station, which could make it difficult to schedule events in the space, McDonaugh said.

Jeff Hicks, who's treasurer of the Friends of Tampa Union Station, said those in attendance at the pre-proposal meeting didn't seem concerned with the logistics of planning events around train passengers.

"No one knows it's there," said Hicks, who's also president of the Dohring Group. "Wouldn't it be cool if you could socially activate the building?"

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is senior reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.