Darryl Shaw talks Ybor revitalization, looks to future

Looking out the first-floor window of Hotel Haya, Darryl Shaw sees the proof people are moving to Ybor City.

“Sitting here working, I’ll look out the window at Seventh Avenue,” Shaw says. “Every day, I’ll see people out for a jog. That’s the litmus test. You go back a year ago and it was rare. Now I’m seeing several a day and more will come. It’s starting. It’s the early days but it’s starting.”

Shaw’s varied mix of Ybor development projects includes historic renovation, new construction, redevelopment, residential, retail, office and mixed-use. There’s a common current running through them – creating a walkable mixed-use district with more residents, more shopping and restaurants and more daytime and weekday activity.

“First and foremost, that means people moving to the area to live here,” Shaw says. “Once they live here, you’ll see them out, walking, jogging, walking the dog, getting their nails done, getting their hair done, wanting to go to the gym, wanting a grocery store. With people living here, there will be a demand for other types of goods and services that will help the district. After that, we’d like to see some really good restaurants move to the district – a culinary focus. That will attract people. We’re also trying to create destinations and activations that give people a reason to come. We’re focusing on the arts, not exclusively. But we feel the arts are a good activation, a reason for people to come to Ybor.” 

Apartments and residents on the way

The centerpiece of the vision, attracting more people to live in Ybor, gains steam this summer. Three residential projects Shaw is involved in will open and welcome their first significant wave of residents.

At the western gateway of the Ybor City Historic District, the first tenants move in at Casa Marti, which has 127 studio, one and two-bedroom apartments spread across two buildings. La Unión, a 317-unit apartment community of studio to three-bedroom apartments, will open as the first piece of the ambitious, mixed-use Gas Worx district Shaw is developing in partnership with real estate developer Kettler. Miles at Ybor, 170 fully-furnished micro-unit apartments with retail space, opens on the 1700 block of 17th Street. 

“There are about 600 units opening in July and August,” Shaw says. “We’ll see what the demand looks like but if we can fill those up it will be transformational. It will dramatically increase the residential base in Ybor with more to come.”

A wave of activity

The new apartment communities continue a wave of openings and activity. Casa Marti’s sister project, Casa Gomez, opened in the spring. Three floors of office space are fully leased while talks are ongoing to bring in a first-floor restaurant that will also

run the rooftop bar. Along the 1300 block of Eighth Avenue, Sky Puppy Brewing opens this summer on the first floor of Casa Bomberos (see related story). Shaw’s development firm Casa Ybor will have the second-floor office space in the renovated late 19th-century building, which was originally Tampa’s second fire station.

Tampa Bay Sun FC has also moved into the training facility at the former Kforce Inc. campus on Seventh Avenue and Nebraska Avenue. Tampa Bay’s first women’s professional soccer club begins play in August in the inaugural season of the USL Super League. For the first seasons, the Sun will play home games at Blake High’s riverfront West Tampa stadium, which the club spent millions to renovate and expand and shares with the high school. Shaw owns the Sun with his childhood friends David Laxer, the co-owner of Bern’s Steak House, and Jeff Fox, the former chief information officer of BluePearl Pet Hospital. He envisions a future stadium in Ybor for the Sun’s permanent home. 

Shaw’s family moved to Tampa when he was eight. His interest in real estate development in Ybor goes back decades. Shaw says he convinced a college roommate who did carpentry on historic homes in Rhode Island to move to Tampa after graduation so they could get into real estate in Ybor’s historic area.

“It didn’t last long,” he says. 

He went on to achieve success as the co-founder and CEO of Blue Pearl Veterinary

Partners, retiring in 2022 to focus on Ybor redevelopment and revitalization. His projects in the Ybor historic district include Hotel Haya, renovating the 19th century former Oliva Cigar Factory into modern apartments, converting the former Don Vicente de Ybor Historic Inn into retail and office space and renovating the former  Buchman department store building into The Buchman, which has studio loft apartments over first-floor retail.  

To cultivate the arts scene, he’s renovated the historic Ybor Kress Building into the Kress Contemporary, a hub that houses a mix of galleries, studios, performance space and arts organizations. He’s donated land for Artspace Tampa, a live-work affordable housing and creative space for artists. He’s working with Tracy Midulla, with nonprofit gallery and arts organization Tempus Projects and the Kress Contemporary, on plans to renovate an old warehouse at 18th Street and East Second Avenue into a collection of artist studios known as The Citrus Factory. Plans include 50 artist studios, a community gallery and cultural event space.

Looking ahead

Looking ahead, Shaw has proposed a land swap with Hillsborough County government that would move the Sheriff’s Office to Grow Financial’s 24-acre headquarters near Brandon, which has a parking garage and a five-story building, in exchange for the Sheriff’s Office’s current 8.3-acre complex in Ybor. Grow Financial is moving to Gas Worx and Shaw’s acquiring the Brandon area property.

“It’s been great having the Sheriff’s Office as a presence in Ybor,” Shaw says. “But it’s also six blocks in the core of Ybor that is not really activated. The Sheriff’s Office facility is really aged and so it’s an opportunity for a win-win. The Sheriff can get a much more modern facility and more acreage and there’s an opportunity to revitalize those six blocks. We’re still thinking through what that would be, but ideally a mix of townhomes, multi-family, retail, potentially office and a parking garage on the east side of Ybor, which Ybor really needs.”

For more information, go to Casa Ybor