Today

Over the last decade, Tampa’s notoriously sleepy downtown has witnessed a development boom. Condo and apartment buildings like Skypoint, Element and The Residences on Franklin, as well as public projects like the Tampa Museum of Art, Curtis Hixon Park and the Tampa Bay History Center, have reinvigorated the downtown core. Smaller-scale projects came on line as well. The Arlington Hotel and Fly Bar have injected life into the newly designated national historic district on North Franklin, while new commercial tenants fill storefronts along Twiggs Street.

“Hiroshima …Nagasaki …Tampa.
That was all that was running through my mind that night.” – Dick Greco

Giuseppe Ferlita moved the factory to 1607 22nd Street in Ybor City in 1924. The building served both as his family’s primary residence and business. Giuseppe embellished the building with neo-classical columns and a grand front entrance to mirror the nearby Italian Club, which was constructed just a few years earlier, in 1917. The business eventually outgrew its Ybor City headquarters and, in 1946, Ferlita sold the building to Pedro and Digna Diaz Perez, who used it as a cigar factory and residence. The family eventually sold the cigar business but continued to live in the building until 1974.