USF seeks developers for The Claw, its defunct golf course
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer and Henry Queen
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 3, 2024

The University of South Florida is seeking proposals from real estate developers to transform The Claw, the shuttered golf course on its Tampa campus, into a mixed-use district more than twice the size of Water Street Tampa.

USF on Friday issued a two-phase invitation to negotiate for the 120-acre property — one that does not include a university-owned forest preserve. In 2021, USF issued a request for information for 769 acres that included The Claw and a university-owned forest preserve. The RFI process ended in 2022, and USF closed The Claw in September 2023. The university said The Claw was losing as much as $200,000 annually when it closed in 2023.

Developers must submit qualifications for the project in the first round of the ITN. Responses are due July 24; USF will post its short list of developers Sept. 4; and the second phase will begin at a date to be determined. Late 2025 is the earliest construction might begin, university officials said. The project requires Tampa City Council’s approval of a land-use amendment, and a hearing on the matter will be held later this summer.

Eric Eisenberg, senior vice president for university-community partnerships, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that USF considers The Claw property “a north gateway to the campus.”

“Whereas in the past we’ve thought of Fletcher Avenue as a boundary to the university, in fact, Fletcher Avenue runs through our campus,” Eisenberg said. “And so our idea is to extend the campus into that area and to create a mixed-use, walkable environment with entertainment and dining.”

The mixed-use district will complement USF’s on-campus football stadium, which is located about a 15-minute walk from The Claw and is expected to be complete in 2027. But a reimagining of The Claw’s real estate is a separate priority for the university and has been in the works for years, said Carole Post, vice president for facilities and public safety operations at USF.

“Frankly, it’s actually just coincidental that the timing is aligning as it is,” Post said. “And so I do think it is very much something larger than complementing the stadium or the athletics district. It’s a complement to the entire university and the community.”

The mixed-use, vibrant development USF officials envision on The Claw is exactly the type of project business and civic officials have been trying to encourage along Fowler Avenue — the main gateway to USF — for the better part of a decade. Some parts of Fowler Avenue span as wide as eight lanes, and the area developed in a suburban nature with no regard for pedestrian safety. Revitalization efforts have been slow going.

The Claw’s redevelopment plans are one way for USF to give its students the type of walkable, cohesive college experience that’s missing from the Tampa campus. But officials said they don’t view it as giving up on Fowler or competing with the plans underway there, like the ongoing redevelopment of the former University Mall.

Eisenberg said USF has been working with other institutions in the area, like the Museum of Science and Industry, Moffitt Cancer Center and the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, to improve pedestrian access and increase density along Fowler Avenue. USF created a new role for Eisenberg in late 2022 to foster those types of relationships.

“We think we can do some placemaking to make the university area as attractive as a destination as it needs to be,” Eisenberg said of The Claw redevelopment, “given the quality of all of the organizations and community members that live and work here.”

Although The Claw has been decommissioned for public play, the site’s northwest section still houses a complex for the men’s and women’s golf teams consisting of practice facilities, locker rooms and study areas. The new development’s first phase will “preferably” exclude that portion of the site, according to the ITN. Developers are invited, however, to propose a reimagining of the training complex, including its potential relocation.

As university-owned land, the project must follow Florida’s public-private partnership requirements.