Contact:
Earl Lennard, Director
Brandon Community Advantage Center
813-310-1101
Linda Chion Kenney
East End Consulting & Communications
813-389-1809 / 813-601-3129
Nonprofit Board Closes On Civic Land
Winthrop Site Future Home of Brandon Community AdvantageCenter
The all-volunteer board selected to oversee the construction of a grand civic center in the Greater Brandon area of Eastern Hillsborough County has closed on a piece of property in Winthrop.
The Brandon Community Advantage Center on Oct. 17, 2008 completed its $750,000 purchase of 4.26 acres in Winthrop, a 149-acre neo-traditional community founded on the tenets of New Urbanism. The property, at 6437 Watson Road, is zoned for civic uses and sits in the southeast quadrant of Bloomingdale Avenue and Providence Road, across the street from Symmes Elementary School and directly behind the Barn Theatre at Winthrop.
"The people of Brandon, after decades of trying, are one significant step closer to realizing their dream of a public space that adequately reflects their town's substantial growth and significance to the greater Tampa Bay area," said Miller Dowdy, chairman of the nonprofit Brandon Community Advantage Center's board of directors.
"For too long, this shining jewel of suburban life, as it grew from a family oriented bedroom community of Tampa into a dynamic metropolitan area centered on children, culture and commerce, has been without a civic meeting space large enough to meet the area's growing and diverse needs," Miller added. "Our board is happy to report that the first step in this crucial undertaking has been finalized and we are well on our way to building for the Greater Brandon community the center it deserves."
The price for the land was determined after a series of land appraisals, including a September 2008 assessment that took into account current market conditions. The site was selected after a comprehensive study of approximately 80 square miles in the Greater Brandon area. Phase II of this three-phase study, conducted by URS (the consulting firm contracted by Hillsborough County), took the Phase I study a step further with a more detailed look at specific sites measured against program needs. Moreover, the site had to be amenable to building a center that in part could be used as a hurricane shelter capable of withstanding winds up to 190 miles per hour, according to the most recent upgrades in FEMA regulations.
Funding for the center amounts to $5.5 million, including $2 million from the state, $1 million from the federal government through the state's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, and $2.5 million in Community Investment Tax dollars requested by the Hillsborough County Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation and approved by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. The $1 million in FEMA dollars comes in phases and is only applicable toward shelter hardening.
With the land in hand, the Brandon Community Advantage Center is anxious to take its next step, keeping in mind the public's input at a week-long design charrette in February.
"We're please now to have this phase of the project behind us and are anxious to move forward to the final design and construction stage," said BCAC Director Earl Lennard, who retired as superintendent of the Hillsborough County School District. "The most exciting time for a community is watching a building come out of the ground and I believe that this is the time now for us to be matching program specifications to our design and building."
Lennard said groundbreaking will occur "as soon as design and permitting allows."
