A car wash that has sat on Nebraska Avenue since 1964 is about to disappear, and in its place will rise a 20-unit affordable housing development called The Vicente. Developer Urban ReWorx plans to break ground on September 2 at 2914 N. Nebraska Ave., just north of downtown Tampa in the historic V.M. Ybor district, with the existing car wash slated for demolition to clear the 0.31-acre site.
The project is funded by roughly $4.5 million in combined public and private contributions, according to Florida YIMBY, which reported that the City of Tampa contributed $750,000 and the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency kicked in $3.5 million, with private equity covering the remainder. The outlet also reported that Tampa Bay council members may allocate additional funds to the project at a later date. The Vicente will include 16 one-bedroom units and four two-bedroom units, along with ground-floor retail space, for a total of 20 residences.
Supporters described the project as a lifeline for people struggling with housing insecurity in the region, per the same outlet’s reporting. Units will target households earning up to 80% of the area median income — in Hillsborough County, where median income sits at $104,700, that threshold works out to roughly $84,000 a year for a four-person household, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay.
A Contentious Path to Public Funding
Getting the project’s public money wasn’t simple. In July 2025, Tampa City Council members acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency approved $3.5 million for the project in a 5-2 vote that came only after five rounds of voting, according to the Tampa Bay Times. That figure was scaled back from Urban ReWorx’s original $5 million ask, as council members weighed concerns about depleting funds needed for other East Tampa redevelopment projects; council members Miranda and Clendenin voted against the deal over those funding trade-offs, the newspaper reported…