TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa city leaders have voted to commit $1.5 million to refurbish the city’s century-old Tampa Union Station.
Over the years, the facility has become rundown and outdated, but they hope the financial facelift could pave the way for even bigger plans.
“Chief of staff brought out like 10 of the top managers of the city to look at Tampa Union Station,” City Councilman Bill Carlson said. “We all saw firsthand how it needs to be repaired quickly.”
Those repairs and renovations are estimated to cost about $2 million. They include updated restrooms, replacing windows, and doors, and restoring the building’s intricate façade.
City leaders voted to commit $1.5 million from Tampa’s Community Redevelopment Agency coffers to get things on track with the possibility of reimbursement down the line.
“This council asked for the CRA board to allocate $1.5 million towards, to accelerate the renovations of the Tampa Union Station. The CRA board approved that money,” Tampa’s Development and Economic Opportunity Administrator Nicole Travis said. “This is just an agreement stating that should we receive any grant funding we would reimburse the CRA from grant funding for that Tampa Union Station.”
Union Station was originally built by the railroad companies that helped create and modernize the state of Florida. Today, the train station is owned by the city of Tampa.
The station, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, sits on the east end of downtown Tampa. It was completed in 1912 and to this day serves more than 100,000 Amtrak passengers a year.
Proponents think it could be much more, though.
Once renovated, they envision a busy coffee shop and event venue. Maybe a restaurant or even workspace for incubator companies and startups looking for a trendy address.
“It’s going to be like more attractive, and like – wow,” said Elijah Rodriguez, waiting for a train. “This is more futuristic. This is brand new and everything looks much more comfortable and neat and nicer.”
“Well, that would be great,” said visitor Gary Bocra, “because that’s going to help everybody in the community. Not only the train station.”
The city plans to take bids on the refurbishing project until Aug. 18.
Once that project is completed, they’ll request proposals for a reimagined Union Station.