First phase of long-awaited Rome Yards to begin construction
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 21, 2024

The redevelopment of Rome Yards, a prime 18-acre piece of city-owned property, is finally about to break ground.

Related Urban Development Group, which partnered with Tampa Housing Authority on the redevelopment, will celebrate the beginning of Rome Yards on Tuesday. The first phase will include a workforce training center as well as the 11-story, 234-unit Gallery at Rome Yards, where 80% of the units will be reserved for households at or below 80% of the area median income, and the remaining 20% will be reserved for workforce housing. Rome Yards is a former city maintenance yard south of Columbus Drive between Rome Avenue and the Hillsborough River.

At completion, Rome Yards will include 954 units of mixed-income housing and 33,605 square feet of commercial space. Gallery at Rome Yards is a $94 million project; the total development costs of Rome Yards is around $300 million.

Gallery at Rome Yards will also include live-work units for artists and entrepreneurs.

Related Urban Development Group is the affordable housing arm of Miami-based Related Group, which recently opened the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Tampa, on Bayshore Boulevard. Rome Yards will be the first time Related is introducing its Gallery-branded apartments to the Tampa Bay region; it has already built its Icon, Manor and Town communities here. Rome Yards is Related Urban Development Group's second affordable housing venture in Tampa; the first is the West River, where it is also partnered with the Tampa Housing Authority.

Tuesday's groundbreaking will mark the beginning of major infrastructure work, including utility relocation and environmental remediation to the site, said Albert Milo, president of Related Urban Development Group.

"It took a little longer because of these environmental challenges," Milo told the Tampa Bay Business Journal. "We had to get some of the approvals from the regulatory agencies."

Mayor Jane Castor selected Related as the master developer of Rome Yards in 2021. Former Mayor Bob Buckhorn had requested proposals for the property in February 2019; by April of that year, the RFP was canceled, with the four responses the city received rejected.

Rome Yards, Milo said, is different from the West River redevelopment: West River was already a public housing development, with aging units that had to be replaced. Rome Yards is a repurposing of a maintenance yard, and the developer has more flexibility to build a mix of affordable, workforce and market-rate housing.

One thing that will remain consistent: Related's focus on integrating public art into its developments, regardless of whether it's luxury condos or affordable housing. Related founder Jorge Perez is an avid art collector and the namesake benefactor of Perez Art Museum Miami, having given the museum $35 million in 2013 and $25 million in 2023.