Core Spaces, Harrison Street to Build 1,200 Student Beds in Tampa

September 26, 2025

Student Housing Development Featured News More Southeast Tampa

The project is one of the main housing components of a 100-acre redevelopment.

A joint venture between Core Spaces and Harrison Street will develop Hub Tampa Fowler, a 1,195-bed student housing development located near the University of South Florida in Tampa. To be built just west of USF’s main campus, the purpose-built development will give students access to campus when it is completed in 2027.

Financing for the project was provided by QuadReal Property Group, and TSB Capital Advisors served as a development and financing consultant. Curioso is leading the project’s interior design.

The new housing will be a critical part of Rithm, a four-phase redevelopment of the University Mall area into a 100-acre mixed-use district containing 3,000 student housing beds as well as hotels, entertainment and retail space. Core Spaces and RD Management are heading up development of the student housing component. Need for the new community-integrated housing is reflected in USF’s plans to grow undergraduate enrollment by approximately four percent during the period from 2024 to 2028.

Easement challenges

Despite the robust demand for student housing in the area, getting the project off the ground proved easier said than done. “A redevelopment of this scale naturally comes with its fair share of challenges,” Joe Gatto, managing director – acquisitions at Core Spaces, told Multi-Housing News.

Many of the hurdles came from the project’s location at the site of a half-century old mall. “Since the mall was first built back in the 1970s, it’s gone through a lot of changes and expansions over the years, which meant navigating a long list of easements tied to its history. On top of that, we had to relocate several existing tenants and even move a roadway to make room for the project.”

Hub Tampa Fowler will represent the second USF-Tampa project for the joint venture of Harrison Street and Core Spaces. The two delivered Hub Tampa in 2022.

Recent Core Spaces projects include five new developments delivered this summer, in which it added 4,400 beds to key markets including Tucson, Ariz., Bloomington, Ind.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Athens, Ga.; and Fullerton, Calif. The firm has more than 15,000 beds in development in nine other markets with large university student populations. It owns and manages more than 78 student housing properties with more than 48,000 beds. Last month, the firm revealed development plans for ōLiv Columbia, two-tower project in Columbia, S.C. that will include 720 market rate apartments and 2,350 beds of student housing.