The long-planned Rome Yards development is officially under construction in West Tampa.
Related Urban Development Group, the affordable and workforce housing wing of luxury developer Related Group, has started work on Gallery at Rome Yards, an 11-story, 234-unit apartment building that will be 80 percent affordable and workforce housing. The developer, the City of Tampa and the Tampa Housing Authority marked the occasion with a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, May 21st.
While Related Urban has developed multiple affordable and workforce housing apartment buildings in the nearby West River district, the Rome Yards project introduces the developer’s “Gallery” workforce housing model to Tampa. That model aims to provide high-quality workforce housing to families and individuals priced out of the neighborhoods that were once home. Five ground-floor live/work units designed for local artists and entrepreneurs will each have a storefront area.
On-site amenities will include a state-of-the-art fitness center, a walking path with distance markers, a workspace for students and remote workers, a communal club room, a dog park with a nearby dog wash area and several ground-floor retail spaces. The property will also house a workforce training/small business success center offering job training and resume-building assistance.
Gallery at Rome Yards is the first development under Tampa’s “Community Benefits Agreement” program, in Tampa, which creates a process that considers the social and community impact of major development plans and requires developers to provide community benefits for projects that receive public funds. For Gallery at Rome Yards, Related Urban will hire a minimum of 40% WMBE (Women and Minority Business Enterprise) and ensure that 40% of all new hires are local to Tampa.
Gallery at Rome Yards is expected to open in December 2026 with a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments. It is the first piece of an ambitious mixed-use development planned on an 18-acre City of Tampa maintenance yard on the west side of the Hillsborough River. At build-out, Rome Yards will have 954 units of mixed-income housing and 33,605 square feet of commercial space. The project will also include green space, a community amphitheater and a brick observation “cigar” tower in honor of West Tampa’s history.
For more information, go to Related Group
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