Experience Senior Living Announces Tampa Development

Construction is scheduled to start later this year.

Rendering of The Gallery at South Tampa. Image courtesy of Experience Senior Living

Experience Senior Living has announced a new 202-unit senior housing development, The Gallery at South Tampa, in Valrico, Fla. The property will mark the company’s fourth community on the Gulf Coast and its seventh in Florida. Construction is scheduled to start later this year.

The 240,613-square-foot property will encompass 89 independent apartments and 30 independent cottages, 45 assisted living units and 38 memory care suites. Common-area amenities will consist of a fitness center, beauty salon, full bar, pickleball court, movie theater and swimming pool. The Gallery at South Tampa will also provide other services such as moving coordination, 24/7 nursing staff and on-site concierge expertise.

The community will be located at 5049 Bell Shoals Road, within a 20-minute drive from Interstate 75 and U.S. Route 301 and a 30-minute drive from downtown Tampa. There are many dining options, entertainment venues and retail spaces in the proximity, as well as green areas like Boyette Springs Park, Bell Creek Nature Preserve and Lithia Springs Park. St. Joseph’s Hospital-South is roughly 10 miles from the property.

President of ESL, Phill Barklow, said in prepared remarks that the 17-acre site for The Gallery at South Tampa allowed for the design of several product types, including dining venues and walking paths along the preserved oak trees. He also added that local art will be installed throughout the community.

The demand for senior housing reached its highest level since 2005, when the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care began tracking the data, with 78 percent of the units vacated during the pandemic being reoccupied.