Downtown Tampa's Straz Center breaks ground on transformative $100 million expansion

It’s showtime for the Straz Center for the Performing Arts’ $100 million expansion.

The long-planned project to expand the Straz’s footprint, along with its presence in downtown Tampa and the local arts community, is officially under construction. It will add 30 percent more space to the Patel Conservatory, where aspiring performing artists receive training in dance, theater, and music. It will connect the Straz to the Hillsborough River and the Tampa Riverwalk, with an architectural veil, a bistro and outdoor stage on the river, a third-floor, open-air shaded cocktail bar overlooking the DLR GroupThe Straz Center expansion will add an outdoor bistro with a stage facing the Hillsborough Riverriver, and an indoor-outdoor terrace leading to the Riverwalk. The project also adds a new opera center, a fine dining restaurant, a cafe doubling as an event space, a new expanded owners lounge, and an expanded lobby and arrival plaza. 

For the Straz, one of the largest performing arts complexes in the country and a jewel in Tampa’s cultural crown, the significance of the expansion goes beyond a building. During an April 7th groundbreaking ceremony attended by elected officials, arts patrons, donors, and current and former Straz leaders who made the project possible, Straz CEO and President Greg Holland summarized what the project is all about.

“The performing arts enhance our lives,” he says. “But let’s think for a moment. What if we didn’t have the arts? We realize that without them something vital is lost. The world becomes quieter, less inspired, less connected. We begin to lose hope. Artistic expression is the fuel that drives progress, empathy, and bold new ideas across all sectors of our society. That’s why we’re building something extraordinary at the Straz Center. This evolution expands more than just our physical campus. It expands our artistic reach and it ensures that the performing arts grow and thrive.”

The City of Tampa is putting $25 million in property tax revenues from its Downtown Community Redevelopment Area toward the expansion of the city-owned performing arts center. During the April 7th meeting, Tampa City Council member and CRA Chair Gwendolyn Henderson, a retired teacher with Hillsborough County Public Schools, recalled writing a grant to bring 200 students to the Straz to see a performance of “Hamilton” and sending her daughter to acting classes at the Patel Conservatory. Her daughter went on to study fine arts at Howard University and became a playwright and professional makeup artist. Henderson says those experiences demonstrated “the transformative power of the arts.”

“This groundbreaking marks more than just the start of construction of course,” she says in her comments. “It symbolizes progress, collaboration, and a shared vision for a more inclusive and vibrant Tampa. Together we are building a space not only that elevates the arts but also reflects the diversity - the DEI - and richness of our community.”

In her comments, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor says the Straz has played a pivotal role in the growth of downtown and the city’s emergence on the national stage. 

“I truly believe that arts and culture are at the heart of any successful communityDiane EgnerDancers and drummers from contemporary Afropop group Wassalou perform at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Straz Center's $100 million expansion

and frankly society itself,” Castor says. “The arts and culture reflect the strength of a community and that is what the Straz does.” 

Straz President Emerita Judy Lisi, who retired in 2022 after 30 years with the performing arts center, says the plans for the expansion stretch back to a 2009 needs assessment.

“At that point, we were bursting,” Lisi recalls. 

She says Straz leadership spent a year going through a visioning process and determined the future expansion needed to connect the center with the river and the Riverwalk and open it to the community. Lisi says the National Theatre in London, which Straz representatives visited while planning this expansion, and the Sydney Opera House were two examples of how to connect a performing arts center to its riverfront location. 

Like the initial construction of the Straz, which opened in 1987, and the 12-year effort to open the Patel Conservatory, it’s been a long journey to break ground on the expansion, Lisi says. To put it in perspective, she shares insights from her husband, Ernie Lisi, who points out that it took 2,000 years to build the Great Wall of China.

The Straz expansion is expected to be complete in the summer of 2027. DLR Group is the design firm on the project. Creative Contractors is the builder.

For more information, go to Straz Center