These six development teams are pursuing the city of Tampa's coveted Rome Yard RFP
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 17, 2020

Six development teams are pursuing the highly coveted Rome Yard, an 18-acre piece of city-owned property near Tampa's West River redevelopment.

Responses to a request for proposals for the property were due Tuesday. The proposals themselves are shielded from public record laws for 30 days. The submissions are under review "for technical sufficiency and completeness since this was a large proposal," said Rob Rosner, director of the city's economic opportunity department.

Here are the development teams that responded to the RFP:

Blue Sky Communities, a Tampa-based developer of affordable housing

Cornerstone Strategic Partners LLC, helmed by Leonard Burke, who previously was Tampa Housing Authority's director of asset management, who is partnered with Atlantic Pacific Communities

Flaherty & Collins Properties, an Indianapolis-based developer

Invictus Development LLC, a Tampa-based affordable housing developer

Onicx LLC, a Tampa-based developer

Rug LLC

The city's vision for the property emphasizes affordable housing and dense, vertical development. When it issued the RFP in October, the city said it "strongly recommends" items like the inclusion of a West Tampa Cultural Center and an easily accessible connector to the West Riverwalk.

The property is directly north of the West River district, where master developer Related Group is moving forward with a new phase that includes 325 luxury apartments and a Publix Super Markets Inc. store. Adding to the site's desirability is a $24 million federal grant that the city secured to extend the West Riverwalk to the north.