This weekend the Tampa Heights Civic Association will begin officially work on renovating a historic church located at Lamar and Palm Avenue that will be ultimately be transitioned into a community and youth development center.
That church has been vacant for the past four years and was purchased by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), part of a series of parcels that the department has been purchasing for the ultimate expansion of I-275, which may not occur for years to come (something we wrote about last March). The local neighborhood association and the city, along with the FDOT, have been negotiating on a deal for years, and earlier this month the Tampa City Council approved the deal.
The renovation is expected to cost $450,000.
The neighborhood association will hold a ground-breaking this coming Friday morning at 10:00 a.m., and on Saturday, the work begins in earnest, starting at 8:30 a.m. and going until noon.
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2010.
