Hillsborough County delivers $24M to USF mixed-use project

The University of South Florida has scored another $24 million to transform its defunct The Claw golf course into a mixed-use development called the Fletcher District. 

The Hillsborough County Commission voted unanimously during its March 4 meeting to give USF $24 million for infrastructure and public safety improvements for the new district that will help connect it to the nearby, on-campus football stadium. 

That money comes from Hillsborough’s Community Investment Tax — a half-cent sales tax that funds public facilities like stadiums, arenas and public parks. 

Commission Chairman Ken Hagan brought the item to the board and acknowledged it is a “significant investment” but one that is “appropriate and prudent.” The money could be distributed to USF over three to four years if necessary, Hagan told the board during Wednesday’s meeting 

“USF is not only on the rise, but their trajectory is truly remarkable,” Hagan told the board. “USF is one of the county’s largest and most important economic engines with over 16,000 employees generating $6.6 billion in income to the Tampa Bay region’s economy.”

For more than a year, Hagan says he has been meeting with USF Board of Trustees Vice Chair Mike Griffin to discuss the university’s partnership with the county and the “synergies” between the many development projects on and around the campus. 

About $10 million of the funding approved Wednesday will help pay for a pedestrian bridge over Fletcher Avenue that will connect the new Fletcher District to the school’s $348 million on-campus football stadium, currently slated to open in 2027. 

Commissioners expressed safety concerns over traffic brought by other popular attractions in the area, such as USF’s on-campus Yuengling Center, which hosts basketball games and other events; the nearby Busch Gardens theme park; and the soon-to-be redeveloped Museum of Science and Innovation site across the street from the campus. 

Commissioners plan to turn the old MOSI campus on Fowler Avenue into a 175,000-square-foot sports complex. 

The entire corridor is less than a mile long, Hagan says. USF’s new stadium is being built north of Fowler Avenue, on the eastern corner of USF’s Tampa campus, while the Fletcher District will be located north of Fletcher Avenue and east of North 46th Street,  just north of the USF campus. 

The goal is to transform the 138-acre derelict golf course into a mixed-use district offering both student and multi-family housing, retail, restaurants, an academic research building, a hotel and conference center and recreation space. USF plans to begin construction on the site this spring and open phase 1 of the Fletcher District in fall 2028.