Tampa awards developer $750,000 for affordable senior living facility

The city of Tampa is handing $750,000 to the developer of an affordable housing community aimed at senior citizens.

The money is for the construction of the second phase of the Madison Highlands development on 37th Avenue.

Tunding comes from a grant through Florida’s State Housing Initiative Program.

The developer, New South Residential, was not available for comment. Previous estimates have placed the cost of the project at $27.9 million, though city officials caution that could — and is maybe likely — to change.

Phase 1 of the project opened in 2021.

The new phase is expected to begin construction later this year. It will have 88 units. Of those, the city says, nine are reserved for extremely low-income tenants with 50% of those deemed “Special Needs” units.

As of the rest, 90% will be set aside for those at 60% of the area median income and 10% for those at 40% area median income.

Madison Highlands is off of Hillsborough Avenue and about 1.1 miles from another affordable housing development. That one is the 354-unit community under construction on the site of the former Fun-Lan Drive-in movie theater.

Tampa, like many localities across the region, is seeing an uptick in the need for affordable and attainable housing options for seniors.

“Affordable housing has been shown to support independence — and reduce the housing cost burden for those on fixed income — ultimately contributing to our senior community’s housing needs,” Kayon Henderson, Tampa’s director of housing and community development, says in a statement.