Jackson House Foundation outlines restoration plan; easement negotiations with neighboring landowner remain unresolved

The Jackson House Foundation presented a detailed plan to Tampa City Council on Feb. 27 to stabilize and ultimately restore the Jackson House, a locally significant historic property on Zack Street, but said progress is constrained by an unresolved easement and related negotiations with neighboring property owners.

Why it matters: The Jackson House is a preserved site tied to Tampa’s African American cultural and musical history. Foundation leaders told council they have assembled grants and local funding and prepared request-for-proposal (RFP) documents that they say will allow an architect and contractor to complete a restoration if property-access and contractual issues are resolved.

Foundation chair Dr. Carolyn Collins told the council the group is finalizing two formal agreements: an appropriation agreement to consolidate public and private funds for the project and a fiscal-management memorandum of understanding already in place with the Tampa Bay History Center. “We want all that in one place being financially managed the way it is now,” Collins said, describing funds “from the county, from the CRA, from the Phoenix, from the state” and identifying a $1 million state grant plus an additional $500,000 state allocation arranged by legislators as part of the funding package. She said artifacts…