MOSI property could soon attract new indoor sports complex
The Brief
The MOSI property could soon attract a new indoor sports complex after approval was given by Hillsborough County Commissioners.
The facility would include 12 basketball courts and 24 volleyball courts.
The MOSI location was chosen as the preferred spot for this development ahead of possible spots in East Tampa and the Westshore area.
TAMPA - Hillsborough County Commissioners have given approval to explore building a new indoor sports complex on land shared by Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry.
During the commission's May 7th meeting, the board voted unanimously to explore building a 174,000-square-foot complex alongside MOSI.
The facility would include 12 basketball courts and 24 volleyball courts.
"This will be the catalyst for I believe most transformative economic development project Hillsborough County has ever been associated with," Commissioner Ken Hagen said during the meeting.
Hagen says he's been working on a project such as this for more than a decade.
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MOSI sits on 74 acres of land, but only uses seven acres. Commissioners agreed one of the major appeals of this type of project is that MOSI's land is already owned by the county.
What they're saying
"It's an area where there's tremendous redevelopment going on both from the University [of South Florida], from MOSI itself and from some of the surrounding hotel and restaurant venues," said Commissioner Harry Cohen. "There's a lot of expectation of generated hotel nights, economic activity, and real growth that can be expected from this type of project."
Commissioners believe this facility would be as successful as the county's Tournament Sportsplex, which is an outdoor facility that opened in 2018 and has exceeded revenue expectations.
MOSI CEO John Graydon Smith said, while the plan is in the early stages, the museum's old, out-of-use, buildings could be repurposed or redeveloped and used as part of the sports complex.
"A facility adjacent to ours that brings in tens if not hundreds of thousands of people in family units looking for things to do throughout the year sounds like an absolute home run to me," Smith said.
The MOSI location was chosen as the preferred spot for this development ahead of possible spots in East Tampa and the Westshore area.
This would be the latest project in the University Area of Tampa that's seeing a development boom: USF is getting a new football stadium; the University Mall is being redeveloped into a mix-use neighborhood; and MOSI just unveiled the second-largest planetarium in the U.S.
"The beauty of it is it's with MOSI at the heart of it and doing everything that's going to support MOSI's growth, while MOSI can support the establishment and growth of these other entities in a very symbiotic relationship," Smith said.
What's next
The county plans to jump-start funding for this project by using $2 million from the 2010 BP Oil spill settlement that was already earmarked for this type of facility.
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