TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa City Council unanimously approved purchasing Memorial Park Cemetery after a real estate investor known for buying and reselling foreclosed properties recently bought it.

“We’re all ecstatic,” said Aileen Henderson, founder of the not-for-profit, The Cemetery Society. “It was a great day, it was a great victory, and the city council did the right thing.”

The historic Black cemetery was recently bought by an investor at auction for $18,000. A city spokesperson previously told Spectrum Bay News 9 it had planned to take over ownership of the property by foreclosing on a tax lien, but the investor’s bid was higher.

“The city wasn’t expecting anyone to bid on it,” said Tampa City Council Member Lynn Hurtak. “I know that number started much higher, so I think $100,000 for such an important part of Tampa’s history is a small price to pay.”

The sale at auction created uncertainty for families who planned to bury loved ones there and for those who had already laid relatives to rest 

“I’d like to say, you know, an apology to the families, the immense pain this has caused an overly complicated issue. I’m sorry that it got to this,” Council Member Guido Maniscalco said ahead of Thursday’s vote.

“Ms. Travis, Attorney Massey, and even the citizens — every, single citizen that cares about Black bodies in the ground at a property called Memorial Cemetery that is well deserved to be respected, I appreciate all the work that you did on this matter, because the city is not in the business of owning cemeteries,” Council Member Gwen Henderson said, referencing Tampa’s administrator for development and economic opportunity, Nicole Travis, and Deputy City Attorney Morris Massey.

Henderson has been one of the voices calling attention to the plight of Memorial Park. She expressed frustration that the property was sold to the investor in the first place.

“That wasn’t important enough to you to make sure that you secure that cemetery? That’s a problem. But that’s a problem we have in Tampa with Black history. It’s a recurring theme over and over and over again,” Henderson said.

Hurtak said now that the city owns the property, it’s planning to move forward with new fencing and other improvements and can use records to identify remains in unmarked graves.

“There’s so many more options, and this is not the first cemetery we’ve acquired now,” said Hurtak. “So now that we own them, we need to think about what we’re doing to preserve them.”

Henderson said her group’s research has shown there are 10,500 unmarked graves at the cemetery that they know of, but they speculate there could be anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 total. Moving forward, she said she’d like to see the city’s historic preservation committee take a more active role in protecting Memorial Park and cemeteries like it. She said she’d also like to see the city be open to community partnerships.

“I want the city of Tampa to hit that reset button everybody keeps talking about and open up to organizations like mine that are here to help them, to stop trying to do it all by themselves. Clearly, they can’t,” Henderson said.

A city official said at the meeting it will cost about $30,000 a year just to maintain the cemetery’s lawn. Council members brought up possible funding sources for different improvements, including nonprofits that can apply for grant funding and community redevelopment area funds.