Affordable townhome project in Tampa breaks ground

By Breanne Williams – Reporter, Tampa Bay Business Journal

An affordable housing townhome project in Tampa is set to break ground on Wednesday.

Gardens at Diana Point North, located at 4489 Cambio Gardens Court, is being developed by the Corporation to Develop Communities of Tampa on a 4-acre site.

Vanessa McCleary, vice president of real estate development for the CDC of Tampa, said the first set of units will be ready by July or August 2025, with the remaining units completed and sold by the end of 2025.

“We have really been focusing on homeownership opportunities,” McCleary said. “One of the things we know in Tampa is that housing is at a premium. Rents are going up and people are not able to afford to stay in the area. We wanted to build something that was affordable for the local workforce.”

The project will have 24 townhomes with three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. Each unit is just over 1,750 square feet. The townhomes will be sold to families earning up to 80% of the area median income. McCleary said they have not yet set a price point for the homes.

To qualify at 80% AMI, a single person would make roughly $53,500 a year and a familyof four would make $76,400 a year, according to federal Housing and UrbanDevelopment and state income limits as of April.

The project was supported through $4.2 million HOME – Community HousingDevelopment Organization funds from Hillsborough County. It also received supportfrom New Market Tax Credits via Smith & Associates, a construction loan fromCommunity Housing Capital Inc., a U.S. Treasury-certified Community DevelopmentFinancial Institution and an Empowering Black Futures grant from Fifth Third Bank.

This is a continuation of the Gardens at Diana Point project, a rental affordable housing project completed in 2019.

McCleary said though affordable rental properties fill a need in the market, they have heavily prioritized homeownership to offer stability for the local workforce. With apartments, even affordable units see constant increases in rents, which causes many renters to continue to move farther away.

Homeownership allows them to put down roots and ultimately helps employers secure a dedicated workforce. She anticipates the townhomes selling out within a week once applications open. Buyers will need to go through housing counseling prior to purchasing a unit. 

She pointed to projects like Tampa General Hospital’s plan to build more than 160 units in Brandon for its employers as evidence of the region's tipping point. Without intervention, a significant portion of the workforce will have no choice but to leaveTampa Bay, she said.

“We have nurses and teachers and firefighters who cannot afford to live here,” McCleary said. “They keep moving further away to find more affordable housing and then, ultimately, they just give up and leave this community altogether. We aren’t talking about those who qualify for Section 8 housing, we’re talking about working professionals who cannot afford to pay $2,500 or $3,000 a month for rent. And they’re leaving.”