Want to Open a Restaurant in a Historic Landmark?

The City of Tampa is seeking proposals for Tampa Heights' historic Water Works Building.

From the City of Tampa: The City of Tampa has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the acquisition (long-term lease or lease with option to purchase) and redevelopment of a portion of the Water Works Building as a café or restaurant. The building, located along the east side of the Hillsborough river in the Tampa Heights neighborhood, is also a local historic landmark. "This is a great opportunity to energize the neighborhood and make Tampa Heights a real destination location," said Mayor Bob Buckhorn. "We are long overdue for a waterfront restaurant along the river in this community. This project is finally taking advantage of the property and possibilities along the Hillsborough River in Tampa Heights." The building sits adjacent …

• Photos (1)

Patch Peeps

Patch Peeps: Get to Know ABC Action News Anchor Brendan McLaughlin

Meet the television journalist and Tampa Heights resident you welcome into your home five evenings a week.

Tampa Bay residents can depend on two constants at 5 p.m. on weekdays.   First, that frustrating gridlock will stand in the way between you and your destination.  Second, longtime ABC Action News anchor Brendan McLaughlin will deliver the day’s top stories to you with poise, sincerity, and a warm smile. The two-time Emmy winner moved from California to the Sunshine State in 1994 with his wife Sandy, first settling in Westchase before settling in Tampa Heights four years ago, and is now celebrating his 17th year with the network. Patch met with the 53-year-old at Nicko’s Fine Foods. Both the waitress and the father and son duo at the adjacent table recognized him the minute he stood up to leave. Despite the instant recognition—which he …

• Photos (2)

Activist Finds Personal Joy in Building Community

Lena Young-Green learned how to get involved at the policy-making level from her years working as a chief legislative assistant. Her parents taught her to become involved in her neighborhood.

When she’s especially pleased, Lena Young-Green might dance a little jig. When she’s directing young charges from the Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association, she’s matter-of-fact and to-the-point. When she’s listening, she appears completely absorbed. But Young-Green is a body never at rest. “I love my community,” she says. “I love community work, getting involved whenever the opportunity presents itself. “I probably work more hours now than when I was working for money. But I’m doing what I love.” A longtime senior legislative assistant to former state Sen. Jim Hargrett, she’s been a leader in organizing residents to bond, rebuild and beautify Tampa Heights since she moved here in 1981. She started by simply joining the neighborhood civic…

•  2 Comments
• Photos (3)

Tampa Heights Plans Festive Garden Ground-Breaking

Residents will be invited to attend free workshops and help plant a 30-by-4-foot butterfly garden during the July 23 event.

When Tampa Heights residents and friends finally break ground on their new community garden July 23, they’ll get good and dirty – and a whole lot more. Plans for the free event from 9 a.m. to noon at 605 E. Frances Ave. include rain barrel, compost and Water-Wise workshops by the Hillsborough County Extension. A special family-oriented butterfly workshop at 9:30 a.m. will be followed by an all-hands planting of the first phase of the butterfly garden. Children’s activities, music, refreshments and a chance to sign up for a $35-a-year plot are all on tap. There will be no charge for the Extension’s popular workshops; county residents attending for the first time will receive vouchers for a rain barrel, compost bin system, or micro-…

•  1 Comment
• Photos (4)

Tampa Heights Community Garden Wins OK from City

The project, in the works for more than a year, has cleared its last bureaucratic hurdle.

Tampa Heights’ dream of a community garden moved a giant step closer to fruition on Thursday when the Tampa City Council approved it as part of an agreement with the Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association. A grand-opening celebration is being planned July 23. “It’s great to see it getting to this point,” said Jim Hartnett, vice president of the community’s “senior” civic association.  “We can get ready for fall planting.” Tampa Garden Club member Kitty Wallace, who has been working on the project for more than a year, attended the council meeting and was jubilant afterward. “We’re excited. We’re celebrating,” she said, adding the agreement won’t be official until the second reading is approved July 14. But since there was no opposition or …

• Photos (3)

Volunteers Work Through Heat in Tampa Heights to Fight Hunger

Verizon union members gathered to package and distribute donated food.

Volunteers came together at the Zion Lutheran Church in Tampa Heights today to distribute food to the hungry. More than 200 families lined up outside the church beginning at 9 a.m. to receive boxes of food. “Everyone left with a huge box of food,” said Pat Rogers, executive director of Feeding America Tampa Bay, the nonprofit food bank that organized the event. Rogers said that each box of donated food would feed a family for about four days. The campaign, Kindness 2011, is a joint project of Verizon and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 824, which represents 3,900 local Verizon employees. For these union members, solidarity extends to the working poor and the jobless that need help. “This is our Year of Kindness,” …

• Photos (8)

Volunteers Rake Up at Youth Center

The lot at the upcoming the Tampa Heights Youth Development and Community Center gets a much-needed trim.

About a dozen volunteers turned out Saturday to help members of the Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association clean the lot surrounding the how home for the Tampa Heights Youth Development and Community Center. The workday began at 8 a.m. and consisted of trimming bushes, raking leaves and weeding. The center is months away from completion in the former Faith Temple Baptist Church at 2005 N. Lamar Ave. For information on how you can participate in future volunteer workdays at the center, contact Association President Lena Young-Green at 813-407-2367.

• Photos (5)