The Reinvention of Westshore: Is Tampa Building Its Next Downtown?

For decades, Tampa's Westshore district has been a place people went to work, catch a flight, shop or attend a football game. At the end of the workday, many simply got back into their cars and left. That may be about to change.

A remarkable collection of developments now underway or planned for Westshore could transform Tampa's traditional business district into something considerably different: a second urban center where people live, work, shop and spend their evenings.

At the center of that transformation is the Tampa Bay Rays' newly approved $2.36 billion ballpark at Hillsborough College's Dale Mabry campus. Tampa City Council approved the agreement in August, followed by Hillsborough County commissioners in a 5-2 vote. The Rays are expected to contribute approximately $1.37 billion and cover cost overruns, while Hillsborough County and Tampa will provide a combined $876 million.

The stadium, expected to contain at least 28,000 seats beneath a fixed roof, is targeted to open for the 2029 Major League Baseball season. But the ballpark may ultimately prove to be only one part of a much larger story.

The Rays envision a mixed-use district surrounding the stadium with businesses, residences, retail, hospitality and a modernized Hillsborough College campus.

That project arrives as Westshore is already undergoing a transformation.

Westshore is Tampa Bay's largest employment center, according to the Westshore Alliance, with more than 6,500 businesses and roughly 100,000 employees. Commercial real estate data shows the district has approximately 12.3 million square feet of office inventory.

Historically, however, much of that development was built around the automobile. Large office buildings, sprawling parking lots, shopping centers and wide roads defined the district. Workers arrived in the morning and departed in the evening.

The future increasingly looks different.

Midtown Offers a Preview

One need only travel to Midtown Tampa to see what developers believe Westshore can become.

The 22-acre development near Interstate 275 and Dale Mabry Highway combines offices, apartments, a hotel, restaurants, stores and public gathering spaces within a walkable development.

The results have been striking. Midtown's approximately 650,000 square feet of office space has been fully leased, its retail space was recently reported at 95 percent leased and its 390-unit apartment building at 98 percent leased.

That success suggests Tampa residents want something Westshore historically wasn't designed to provide: places where they don't necessarily have to get into a car every time they want to eat, shop or meet friends.

Now that philosophy is spreading.

The redevelopment of WestShore Plaza could eventually introduce more housing, restaurants, offices and entertainment. Older office properties are being reconsidered for residential development. Meanwhile, transportation improvements are intended to create a more interconnected street network.

The Florida Department of Transportation is rebuilding the notoriously congested Interstate 275 interchange in Westshore, while plans for an intermodal transportation center near Trask Street could eventually improve connections to Tampa International Airport and regional transit.

The pieces are beginning to connect.

Tampa International Airport sits nearby. Raymond James Stadium is already there. International Plaza remains one of the region's premier shopping destinations. Midtown continues expanding. WestShore Plaza is preparing for redevelopment. And now Major League Baseball is preparing to move into the neighborhood.

The result could be something Tampa has never really had before.

For generations, downtown Tampa was the city's urban center while Westshore was its corporate center. That distinction is beginning to blur.

If the developments now envisioned are completed—and if Tampa can solve the district's persistent problems with traffic, walkability and transportation—Westshore may eventually become much more than the place Tampa goes to work.

It could become the place Tampa goes to live. And in the process, the city may discover that it has built something unexpected:

a second downtown.