Tampa Downtown Partnership could expand special services district to Ybor City
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 10, 2023

Ybor City, on the cusp of a new wave of development, could be added to the Tampa Downtown Partnership’s special services district.

The partnership will ask Tampa City Council in February to add Ybor City to its special services district. Property owners within the boundaries of the partnership’s district are assessed a fee for its services — which include marketing, security and cleaning — and the partnership’s authority to levy that fee is reapproved annually by city council. The expansion request will be part of the annual reapproval process.

The partnership’s assessment rate was $1.0285 per $1,000 of assessed property value in fiscal year 2023, and it is anticipated to stay the same in fiscal year 2024, the partnership told Ybor City stakeholders in a letter.

Some of Ybor’s biggest players, including restaurateur Richard Gonzmart and property owners Joseph Capitano Sr. and Darryl Shaw, are in support of being added to the partnership’s district.

“Long-awaited new developments have fostered the connectivity and vibrancy needed to expand and fill in the gaps in our downtown,” Lynda Remund, partnership CEO, said in a statement. “Ybor City has long been one of the most treasured urban neighborhoods, and we are excited by the prospect of further connecting and activating Ybor City with our other distinct and diverse downtown neighborhoods.”

Gonzmart, whose family has owned Ybor anchor The Columbia for five generations, called the addition to the special services district “an important step in the future of this historic district.”

“This move will enable far better opportunity for joint marketing, enhanced business development and progressive ideas for transportation/mobility as well as parking and mass transit,” Gonzmart wrote in a letter of support to assistant city attorney Justin Vaske.

The potential expansion comes amid an unprecedented wave of development in Ybor. Shaw, one of the district’s largest landowners, plans to build the mixed-use Gas Worx, which will bring residential units, office space and retail to Ybor.