Bulldozers rolled into Robles Park Village on Monday, beginning Tampa’s ambitious affordable housing redevelopment project.
Mayor Jane Castor climbed aboard one to tear into the first building, marking the start of a mixed-income community that will also honor the city’s buried past.
The project will transform the now-vacant 1950s-era public housing complex into nearly 1,850 new homes and a 30,000-square-foot community center. The center will offer educational programs, job training, and healthcare access.
ALSO READ: A historical marker is unveiled at the once-forgotten Zion Cemetery in Tampa
But the land the village sits on carries a history that cannot be paved over.
In 2019, researchers uncovered nearly 800 unmarked graves from Zion Cemetery — Tampa’s first African American burial ground, which dates back to 1901. Records show only a handful of graves were ever relocated.
The rest remain beneath Robles Park, hidden under decades of housing development and forgotten by much of the city.
Plans for the new housing development include the Zion Cemetery Memorial and Genealogy Center, which will honor those buried, offer access to ancestry research and educate future generations.
“It’s going to be on the list of places that people say when you go to Tampa, not if, when you go to Tampa you’ve got to visit the Zion Cemetery Memorial site and Genealogy Center,” said Zion Preservation and Maintenance Society President Fred Hearns.
Many in attendance at Monday’s demolition ceremony were former residents who shared mixed feelings of celebrating the future and the bittersweetness of their old homes being torn down.
"I don’t look at it in no bad way. I look at it, something that needed to be better.”Former resident Byron Jenkans
“Y’all taking our life away,” said Cheryll Jenkans. “This [was] all we got, it’s all we had, all our memories.”
“I don’t look at it in no bad way,” added Byron Jenkans. “I look at it, something that needed to be better.”
“I’m in hope that the residents do get to return, those that want to return,” said Angerloe Bellamy. “And that we can finally be as one, and communicate, and get together.”
After starting the demolition, Mayor Castor said she was very familiar with Robles Park Village from her time with the Tampa Police Department.
"I used to patrol this area as a young police officer during the crack cocaine heydays, and so I saw sort of the deterioration of many neighborhoods, including Robles Park," she said. "So to get this down and something new is great for our community."
Other speakers at the demolition included Congresswoman Kathy Castor, State Representatives Dianne Hart and Fentrice Driskell, and Hillsborough County Commissioner Gwen Myers, who all called the redevelopment a turning point.
“It was time,” said Myers. “But when we think about those who were living here, today they will be coming back with hope and new opportunities for their families.”
Groundbreaking on the project is planned to start April 2026.
The project is a private-public partnership involving the Tampa Housing Authority, the Bank of America Community Development Company, and Property Markets Group Affordable.
