West Bay Village

Location: West Bay Drive between 2nd and 4th Streets Southwest, Largo

Redevelopment District: West Bay Drive District

Project Type: Redevelopment

Description: When the City of Largo government moved into a new city hall in 2000, it left behind a prime eight acre site, already cleared for new development, in the heart of its downtown. The city, already engaged in an ambitious redevelopment program for the district, embarked on a search to find the right project to anchor the effort.

Two years later, Hyde Park Builders, Inc., a locally owned firm that has created a number of successful traditional neighborhood developments in the Tampa Bay region, was selected to redevelop the site with 54 townhomes and a 21,000-square-foot commercial center. Because the site presented a number of challenges, the city agreed to sell the land for lower than its appraised value, waived certain development fees, reimbursed the builder for the cost of sewer lines, and constructed a public parking lot that can be used by the businesses' customers.

The first phase of the project was completed in 2004. Most of the townhomes have been sold, and businesses have begun to move into the commercial center. The new development has already become a hub of activity for the downtown district.