Tampa Bay keeps its character through thoughtful design

Key points:

• • The building boom in Tampa Bay is real but thoughtful design is needed to protect long-term value.
• • National architecture billings have signaled contraction since 2023, but Tampa Bay runs well ahead.
• • Record population gains, a luxury surge, and a 30,000-unit housing shortfall mean design discipline, not demand alone, decides what endures.

June 2026 — WJ Architects turned seven former art warehouses off Central Avenue into the St. Pete Athletic Club, proof that an industrial block can become a destination. Its president, Jason Jensen, sees both the opportunity and the threat in Tampa Bay‘s building boom. He and two other regional architects make the same case: thoughtful design, not raw demand, will decide which of this growth lasts.

Join us at caa’s upcoming leadership summits! These premier events bring together hundreds of public and private sector leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities for businesses and investors. Find the next summit in a city near you!

“If we don’t really encourage good design at the pedestrian level, then we lose the texture and fabric of our cities,” Jason Jensen, president and CEO of WJ Architects, said in an interview with Invest:. It is the through-line in conversations with three of the region’s architects, who treat thoughtful design as a financial discipline rather than a finishing touch.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro tops 3.4 million residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released in March 2026. Capital is following the people: Tampa-area multifamily sales reached $2 billion in 1Q26, second in Florida only to Orlando. “Florida is in its own kind of bubble because of the development demand here, and Tampa Bay is almost a bubble within a bubble,” Carlos Molnar, managing principal of Sol Design Studio, told Invest:. 

The national backdrop proves his point. The AIA/Deltek Architecture Billings Index, a leading indicator that tracks nonresidential construction nine to 12 months out, have not signaled growth nationwide since January 2023, sitting at 48.3 in April 2026 — below the line dividing expansion from contraction. Tampa Bay is running well ahead of that trend, and its architects are using the room to argue for design that lasts.

Build for the long horizon

Beverly Frank frames thoughtful design as a question of time. As vice president of Florida architecture at Goodwyn Mills Cawood, she sees no end to the demand. “Florida is growing by leaps and bounds, with a lot of people moving here from other locations because of our beautiful climate, but also because of the great climate for business and low taxes,” Frank said. Healthcare leads the rest: “Healthcare is always a bellwether relative to architecture because opportunities follow population growth and changes in population demographics.”

That growth, in Frank’s view, demands buildings designed to outlast the boom that produced them. “We are not building 10- or 20-year buildings. We are building 50- to 100-year buildings, so resilience is especially important,” Frank said, drawing a hard line on the infrastructure racing to keep up. “On the surface, data centers are great for economic development, but communities also have to consider the offset for the average citizen,” Frank said. That concern is now Florida law: in 2026 the state enacted SB 484, directing the Public Service Commission to make large data centers, not residential ratepayers, cover the grid upgrades they require.

Honor what is already there

Molnar approaches the same problem through preservation. He works out of a restored 1910 building in Ybor City and treats old architecture almost like artwork. “When people walk inside, they should immediately feel the quality and history of the era the building came from,” Molnar said. His firm’s Lions World Vision Institute, a technical eye-bank and research facility, was built to that standard. The design, he said, “blends into the fabric of Ybor so it feels like it belongs there. It looks modern, but it also respects the surrounding architecture.”

He applies the same restraint to his own firm. “We’re looking at expansion, and that’s a dangerous thing. It’s something that needs to be done thoughtfully,” Molnar said. “We want sustainable growth, not growth for the sake of growth.” That philosophy extends to the work itself, hardened by storms that rebuilt his own office facade brick by brick. “We believe architecture, art, history, and experience should all work together,” he said.

Protect the urban fabric

Downtown St. Petersburg and Tampa now post office vacancy below 10% — part of a regional rate that fell to 18.2% in the 1Q26, a four-year low, as more than 1 million square feet came off the market through redevelopment and conversion. That scarcity is what makes adaptive reuse enticing. “Traditionally, what people love about walkable cities, whether Franklin Street in Tampa, Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, or Beach Drive, is the rhythm of storefronts, hospitality, and the diversity of architecture and businesses,” Jensen said. “That is the richness of the urban fabric.”

The threat, he warns, is uniformity. “We are seeing some entire blocks become homogenous at the storefront level,” Jensen said. His remedy mixes zoning with restraint, and he points to Tampa’s Midtown as a model. “Giving tenants an opportunity to create their own brand identity instead of imposing one homogenous design is a really interesting idea,” he said. The same logic guides his waterfront work in the Salt Creek Innovation District, where 42% of St. Petersburg sits in a coastal high-hazard area and the goal, in his words, is “looking at responsible ways to develop our waterfront.”

Watch the Historic Gas Plant District, the region’s largest redevelopment in planning, and Jensen’s Pier Approach as templates. “If we invest in design and vision, we can attract visitors while also supporting locals with a place they can use,” Jensen said, calling that public space “the city’s living room.” His final caution is the one executives should weigh. “Companies can choose anywhere now,” he said. “We cannot forget to lift up our own residents and give them opportunities for work and opportunities to live here without being pushed out.” 

With St. Petersburg still short roughly 30,000 housing units and $42 million newly added to its affordable housing fund, the developers who hold thoughtful design in high regard will hold value when demand cools.

Want more? Read the Invest: Tampa Bay report.