Church, developer break ground on $42M affordable housing project

Construction has officially begun on a $42 million affordable housing project in Hillsborough County being built by a local developer and a local Catholic church.

The project is called Casa Di Francesco and is being built on a 20-acre piece property belonging to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on State Road 579 in Mango, about 1.5 miles south of Interstate 4. Blue Sky Communities from St. Petersburg is the developer.

A ceremonial groundbreaking was held on the property Tuesday.

When complete, the development will be made up of 140 units and reserved for people 62 and older who meet specific income criteria.

Of the units, 100 will be one-bedroom with the remaining 40 two-bedroom units. Five will be reserved for residents at 22% of the area median income,14 are for residents at 33% of the area median income, and the remaining 121 are for those at 60% of area median income, Blue Sky says.

The four-story building, which is within walking distance of several grocery stores and near a public park, will include a clubhouse, a walking trail, a picnic area, a library, a community garden, and craft and exercise rooms.

Units will be available first-come, first-served, and a waiting list is live on the development’s website.

Work is expected to be complete in early 2025.

The building is being built on a sliver of St. Francis’ property and came about after an agreement was reached a couple of years ago between Blue Sky and the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg.

Rev. Edison Bernavas, the pastor at St. Francis since 2017, told the Business Observer in November 2022 that he saw a growing need for affordable housing as he visited elderly parishioners.

“That gave me an idea,” he said last year. “Why not start something on our property, like affordable, decent housing for people who are elderly so that they could live in a decent home and they don’t have to be worried about living day to day.”

The church building itself sits in the middle of a vast swath of land that Bernavas says was just sitting empty. After asking around about what could be done, he learned from parishioners that the church’s founding pastor, Christopher Fitzgerald, had long wanted to develop the property for senior housing but was unable to.

Bernavas pushed on and eventually met Blue Sky, which had already been discussing the idea of building affordable housing on church property with the diocese. Shortly before the pandemic, it was decided that St. Francis was a location that made sense to build on.

Funding for the project came from several public and private sources including from the Florida Housing and Finance Corp. and in tax credit equity from Raymond James.

The project also got $4.3 million from the recently enacted Florida affordable housing legislation dubbed the Live Local Act.