Dr. Jeffery Johnson, chairman of the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency, plans to eventually add “mayor of Tampa” to an already extensive resume. Photo: Facebook.
Dr. Jeffery Johnson is a pastor, founder, executive, U.S. Navy lieutenant, global ambassador, and Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award winner. He also has unfinished business in the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Area (CRA).
Johnson was reelected, unopposed, to a second one-year term as chairman of Florida’s largest CRA in November 2025. While navigating notoriously slow city processes presents a hurdle, he is particularly proud of efforts to mitigate the ongoing affordable housing crisis.
Property taxes collected within CRAs help revitalize surrounding neighborhoods rather than fund citywide initiatives. The agency that oversees East Tampa’s revitalization allocated $4.77 million in fiscal year 2024, according to the City of Tampa’s most recent annual report.
“If my numbers serve me correctly, we’ve already given over $2 million of down payment assistance in the past year,” Johnson said. “We’ve done $1.5 million in housing rehabs to help people stay in their homes in East Tampa.”
A map of the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Area. Image: City of Tampa.
Johnson, also chief strategy officer for the Corporation to Develop Communities (CDC) of Tampa, said the CRA has “been a catalyst” for a facade grant program that bolsters struggling businesses. A city website highlights several other ongoing initiatives that improve parks, support entrepreneurs, create additional affordable housing, and enhance security at a 107-year-old cemetery.
East Tampa encompasses 7.5 miles, and Johnson said its size and geography present both benefits and challenges. The community is “becoming progressive,” and has seen an influx of new residents who “may not know the history.”
“East Tampa was not always known as East Tampa,” Johnson explained. “It was more or less different neighborhoods – Jackson Heights, Belmont Heights, College Hill, Ponce De Leon – and the residents never changed the name to East Tampa. It was wayfinding through the city that changed it.”
Area residents were historically longtime homeowners, Johnson said. The CRA is the closest district to Ybor City, and rapidly evolving demographics can create “tensions.”
However, Johnson believes that a community needs mixed incomes and uses to “keep it thriving.” He said affordable and market-rate developments with commercial space, a CRA priority, create an “economic engine” for residents and business owners.
“That’s what I’m looking forward to – that our business market is strengthened and stronger in East Tampa,” Johnson added.
An East Tampa CRA public art collage. Photo: City of Tampa.
Municipal bureaucracy is an ongoing impediment to progress. “Honestly, I see things moving quicker in other CRAs,” Johnson said. Those include areas around downtown, including the Channel District.
Johnson said that at times, “it seems as if there’s an intentional delay” when requesting city approval for an East Tampa project. “I can’t prove it, but it seems that way.”
“The rate of development should be faster than what it is,” Johnson said. “It seems as if some items are being slow-walked, and it is limiting the progression.”
He believes East Tampa needs a “champion” in the private sector to foster public partnerships. Johnson used developer Darryl Shaw, who is behind the six-million-square-foot Gasworx project in Ybor City, as an example.
Johnson said the CRA needs someone to “put money up” and consider a development as their “beacon of light to make sure that the growth and development of East Tampa is connected to what I do.”
The community has a public sector champion in Johnson, 43, who plans to run for mayor in 10 years. He wants the city to extend the CRA, currently scheduled to sunset in 2034.
Johnson noted that the CRA has sought to redevelop what is known as the “Gator Building” since purchasing the property in 2018. The building opened in 1951 at the intersection of East Lake Avenue and North 22nd Street.
A request for qualifications from developers to transform the “prime” property into a business incubator with a food hall and event plaza was “finally” approved in early March, Johnson said. “And the way that’s going to go, that building would not be developed until probably 2028, 2029.”
“That’s 10-11 years for one project,” Johnson said. “That’s unacceptable.”
He believes the city should extend the CRA’s lifespan to compensate for project delays. The agency is also updating its Community Development Plan, which outlines area initiatives and programming over the next decade.
Johnson said the CRA’s mission should continue until another “champion” realizes “there’s a systemic problem in East Tampa,” and then works to ensure that “these items and projects are completed.”
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