SULPHUR SPRINGS, Fla. — After years of shoring up funding and searching for the best location developer Blue Sky Communities broke ground on its first affordable housing project in Tampa. 

The Adderley is a 128 unit multi-family apartment community being built on Nebraska Avenue. Construction is scheduled for completion in the Spring of 2024.

To qualify to live at the Adderley, applicants (individuals) must earn less than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI).

Shawn Wilson is the President of Blue Sky Communities and says high quality workforce housing for that area has been lacking.

“There’s other areas in the City of Tampa that are getting rapidly redeveloped; Downtown, Ybor City and even areas of West Tampa and this area (Sulphur Springs) really has not seen that kind of redevelopment,” he said.

The groundbreaking was symbolic for Jacqueline Coffie Leeks who says generations of her family have been linked to that property.

“For years there was a hotel that my grandmother could clean, but they were’nt allowed to live in.” She said.

Jacqueline Coffie Leeks is the Executive Director of Sulphur Springs Neighborhood of Promise.

Her grandmother, Marie Carter worked as a maid at a hotel that once stood where the new project will be developed.

Four generations of her family including her grandmother Anna Coffie and Father Ronald Coffie lived across the street.

Despite their proximity she says opportunities were still out of reach.

“The generation I was born in saw that this area was an opportunity to develop and grow,” Jacqueline recalled.

However, when the hotel industry died down she says the nearby Sulphur Springs community also suffered.

“Then there was nothing here. It was sad, broken. Lots of homelessness,” she said.

After seeing this community go through its lowest point, Jacqueline says she’s glad to finally see a shift.

“To know that there is something going to be built that we can live in and enjoy is great”

The Adderley is the first affordable housing project within the city of Tampa that is not tied to the Tampa Housing Authority.

The City also invested $2 million to get the project off the ground.

It’s an investment, Jacqueline says is long overdue.

“As gentrification happens they are pushed into our areas and nowhere to live so it’s really important,” she added.

Jacqueline says this has always been a transient community and therefore somewhat forgotten.

“We want people to be able to stay because when you have that ownership then you look at the community different, you have a different type of investment,  a different type of love and it helps the community to become more promising, healthier,” she said.

She believes this will provide opportunities that future generations of her family can have access to and enjoy.