Tampa housing authority nearing construction start for Reed apartments

BUYER: The Reed at Encore LP (principals: Hazel Harvey, Robert Shimberg, Jerome Ryans, Manny Alverez, Billi Johnson-Griffin and Ruben Padgett), Tampa
SELLER: Housing Authority of the City of Tampa
PROPERTY: a portion of land south of Scott Street between Hank Ballard and Blanche Armwood streets, Tampa
PRICE: $1.57 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Saxon Gilmore Carraway & Gibbons PA, Tampa

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The Housing Authority of the City of Tampa has transferred land on one of the 12 building pads in its Encore development to a single-purpose entity it shares with the Banc of America Community Development Corp. for $1.6 million.

The sale was part of plans to develop the site into a seven-story senior-housing apartment building called The Reed. The housing authority is close to awarding the construction contract for the project and hopes to start vertical construction in mid-August.

The Reed will house 158 one- and two-bedroom units in the four top levels. The bottom three floors will include a 220-space parking garage, retail space, a pool, shuffleboard court, clubhouse and movie theater.

“We hope to have it completed in 14 months,” says Leroy Moore, senior vice president and COO for the Housing Authority of the city of Tampa.

The $30 million project is the third building under development in the 28-acre Encore District, a redevelopment site on the site of the former Central Park Village Public Housing project. Banc of America Community Development Corp. and the housing authority have already completed the seven-story $26.1 million The Ella senior housing development. Construction on the second building, the 141-unit affordable housing rental The Trio at Encore, started in December.

All totaled, the Encore mixed-use community is expected to create 1,512 residential units, 183,000 square feet of office space, 83,000 square feet of retail, including a grocery store, a museum, up to 200 hotel rooms and a middle school.