Is the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office headquarters leaving Ybor City?

For decades, a sprawling collection of government buildings in Ybor City — including an imposing brick structure that some nickname Fort Heinrich in honor of a longtime sheriff — served as the headquarters of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office .

These headquarters may soon move as part of a changing Ybor.

A proposed land swap deal would allow the sheriff's office to swap the 8.33 acres just north of historic Ybor's main drag of restaurants, bars and businesses for the site of the city's headquarters Grow Financial Federal Credit Union near Lee Roy. Selmon Expressway.

At the center of the deal — which must be approved by the Hillsborough County Commission to move forward — is Darryl Shaw, the developer who is playing a big part of Ybor City's role in the big construction boom in Tampa.

Construction has already begun on Shaw's Gas Worx, a walkable and bikeable neighborhood rising on the west side of Ybor, and over the next decade it will be home to some 5,000 new residences as well as businesses and businesses. offices.

Sheriff Chad Chronister told the Tampa Bay Times this week that he agreed with the swap, which he said would mean a newer, more professional building for the sheriff's office.

It would be more central for residents looking for records such as traffic accident reports, he said: “You don’t have to drive to Ybor City. »

“I think we’re becoming more efficient and more effective,” Chronicer said.

The Ybor City Sheriff's Office property includes three buildings, a memorial and a parking lot on the north side. In 1978, the sheriff's office, which operated out of the jail, courthouse and a downtown building, consolidated in Ybor under then-Sheriff Malcolm Beard, according to Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center.

“We have a big footprint,” Chronicer said. “I understand why this would be attractive for development. »

The site also includes a historic sheriff's office center in a building more than a century old.

The credit union site, a 5-story structure with 140,000 square feet of office space built in 2005, is almost twice the size of the current sheriff's quarters.

“Whenever there is an opportunity to collaborate for the benefit of the taxpayers, the Sheriff’s Office and Ybor City, we will always be interested in those opportunities,” Shaw said in a statement this week. “We are fortunate to have forward-thinking public partners who are open to exploring possibilities that could result in long-term benefits for the community. »

Last fall, it was announced that Grow Financial's headquarters would be the first company to sign an office lease at Shaw's Gas Worx, for a 50,000-square-foot space that will occupy two floors. Shaw is under contract to purchase Grow Financial's current headquarters at 9927 Delaney Lake Drive near Brandon.

If the swap goes through, it could help reconnect 19th Street to restore the road network in Ybor. Preserving the historic casitas that line 19th Street would be “a critical creative element of any redevelopment project,” Shaw said in the release. No specific project is planned.

At least one county commissioner who will consider the proposal later this month seemed enthusiastic:

“We have an opportunity here to pursue an innovative solution to our aging Hillsborough Sheriff’s facility and provide his team with a home that will serve future generations,” Commissioner Michael Owen said in a statement.

Shaw, a major real estate owner in Ybor City, was deeply involved in Ybor's next incarnation. He told the Times last year that there was “definitely a desire to tone down some of the late-night activities” — the bar scene that Ybor is known for.

“I think there’s definitely a place for bars and clubs,” he said. “But right now there’s too much focus in that direction and not enough on restaurants, arts and retail.”

A shooting last fall among a crowd of Halloween revelers in Ybor City left a 14-year-old and a 20-year-old dead and more than a dozen injured. The shootings, Shaw said then, necessitated “difficult conversations” about Ybor’s future.