Long-awaited MetWest apartments are finally moving forward
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 6, 2024

A long-awaited apartment complex is moving forward in Tampa’s MetWest International district.

Zom Living said Monday that it has partnered with MetLife Investment Management to build MetWest Residential, an eight-story, 375-unit apartment building that will also include 3,000 square feet of retail space and a six-story parking garage.

The apartments will complete the 32-acre mixed-use MetWest International — nearly 20 years after plans for the district first took shape. Developers took steps toward beginning the residential portion of MetWest in 2014 and again in 2020, but neither of those attempts ever came to fruition.

The project will rise on one of MetWest’s most outward-facing parcels, at the intersection of West Boy Scout Boulevard and North Lois Avenue. The developers secured a $63 million construction loan from TD Bank, according to Hillsborough County property records.

“The ability to secure financing for this project is a testament to the demand we are seeing in Tampa for premium-quality rental housing with robust amenity offerings, which our residential projects in the region are helping to meet,” Kyle Clayton, senior vice president of Zom Living, said in a statement. “Tampa is seeing healthy growth in all directions from its urban core to key suburban markets, and we are excited to be part of this growth, bringing to the area a residential project located in one of the most prominent mixed-use developments in Tampa today.”

Zom has been active in the Tampa region for 30 years and has 15 projects here, including Seazen, which was built on the former site of Chart House on the Rocky Point waterfront.

MetWest International is home to three office towers, an AC Hotel by Marriott and several retailers and restaurants. Restaurants include Del Frisco’s Grille, Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant, Kona Grill and Thai Prime.

Looney Ricks Kiss, a Memphis, Tennessee-based architecture firm, will design MetWest Residential.