For decades, a collection of sprawling government buildings in Ybor City ― including an imposing brick structure some nicknamed Fort Heinrich after a longtime sheriff — have served as headquarters for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Those headquarters could soon be on the move as part of a changing Ybor.
A proposed land swap deal would have the Sheriff’s Office trading the 8.33 acres just north of historic Ybor’s main drag of restaurants, bars and businesses for the 24-acre Grow Financial Federal Credit Union headquarters site near the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway.
At the center of the deal — which must be approved by the Hillsborough County Commission to move forward — is Darryl Shaw, the developer driving much of Ybor City’s role in Tampa’s big building boom.
Already beginning construction is Shaw’s Gasworx, a walkable, bikeable neighborhood rising on the west side of Ybor, which over the next decade will bring in some 5,000 new residences along with shopping and office space.
Sheriff Chad Chronister told the Tampa Bay Times this week he’s on board with the swap, which he said would mean a newer, more professional building for the Sheriff’s Office.
It would be more centrally located for residents seeking records such as traffic crash reports, he said: “You don’t have to drive all the way to Ybor City.”
“I think we become more efficient and more effective,” Chronister said.
The Ybor City Sheriff’s Office property includes three buildings, a memorial and parking on the north side. In 1978, the Sheriff’s Office, which had been operating out of the jail, the courthouse and a downtown building, consolidated in Ybor under then-Sheriff Malcolm Beard, according to Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center.
“We have a big footprint,” Chronister said. “I can see why it would be appealing to development.”
The site also includes a Sheriff’s Office History Center in a building more than a century old.
The credit union site, a 5-story structure with 140,000 square feet of office space built in 2005, is almost twice as big as the sheriff’s current quarters.
“Whenever there’s a chance to collaborate for the benefit of taxpayers, the Sheriff’s office, and Ybor City, we are always going to be interested in those opportunities,” Shaw said in a release this week. “We are fortunate to have forward thinking public partners who are open to exploring possibilities that could lead to long-term advantages for the community.”
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Explore all your optionsLast fall came an announcement that Grow Financial’s headquarters would be the first business to sign an office lease in Shaw’s Gasworx, for a 50,00-square-foot space that will take up two floors. Shaw is under contract to purchase the current Grow Financial headquarters at 9927 Delaney Lake Drive near Brandon.
If the swap proceeds, it could allow the reconnecting of 9th Avenue to restore the street grid in Ybor. Preserving the historic casitas that line 19th Street would be “a critical placemaking element of any redevelopment project,” Shaw said via the release. No specific projects have been planned.
At least one county commissioner who will consider the proposal later this month sounded enthusiastic:
“We have an opportunity here to pursue an innovative solution to our Hillsborough Sheriff’s aging facilities and provide his team with a home that will serve future generations,” Commissioner Michael Owen said in a release.
Chris Currie, president of the Historic Ybor Neighborhood Association, said the property’s current role as a law enforcement headquarters in a nationally designated historic district is probably “not the highest and best use of that area for the citizens of Tampa.”
He said the land swap deal could potentially help serve as a bridge to the north part of Ybor, which was bisected by Interstate 4 There’s also the potential for opening the blocked-off street grid around the Sheriff’s Office buildings.
“The potential for more affordable housing and stuff, I think that would be great on a lot of levels,” he said.
Shaw, a major property owner in Ybor City, has been deeply involved in Ybor’s next incarnation. He told the Times last year that there is “definitely a desire to temper some of the late-night activity” — the bar scene Ybor is known for.
“I think there is definitely a place for bars and clubs,” he said. “But right now it’s too heavily weighted in that direction and not enough on restaurants, arts and retail.”
A shooting last fall among throngs of Ybor City Halloween revelers left a 14-year-old and a 20-year-old dead and more than a dozen injured by gunfire. The shootings, Shaw said then, necessitated some “hard conversations” about Ybor’s future.
