Tampa General and USF Health Break Ground on The Linden, a 170-Unit Workforce Housing Complex for Hospital Employees in Brandon

Tampa General Hospital and USF Health broke ground Monday, Nov. 9, on The Linden, a 170-unit apartment community in Brandon built for hospital and medical school employees who earn too much for traditional subsidized housing but struggle to afford market rents in one of Florida's fastest-growing metros. The complex at 9804 Delaney Creek Boulevard is expected to open in late summer 2028, according to a Tampa General press release.

WUSF reported that the project will be Hillsborough County's first workforce housing community sponsored by a health care employer. It sits on land Tampa General already owned, about a mile from the hospital's Brandon Emergency Center.

What is being built

The Linden will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The Michaels Organization, a national housing developer, is building the complex in partnership with Tampa General and will also handle asset and property management once it opens. Urban Practice is the architect.

According to the hospital's release and renderings described by WUSF, the community will include:

• A 5,000-square-foot on-site child care center operated by O2B Kids
• A free shuttle linking the complex to Tampa General's main campus on Davis Islands and the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine in downtown Tampa
• A pool, playground, garden, dog park and shared gathering spaces

The child care center is a significant piece of the plan. Earlier reporting on the project said the daycare would be open to Tampa General employees generally, not only to residents of the apartments.

Who can live there

The apartments are reserved for Tampa General and USF Health team members earning 80% to 120% of the area median income. For a single person in Hillsborough County in 2026, WUSF calculated that range at roughly $64,250 to $96,360 a year under the latest federal income guidelines. Household limits rise with family size.

That band targets the middle of the hospital's pay scale: employees who often earn too much for programs designed for lower-income renters but find new market-rate apartments in Tampa Bay out of reach.

Estimated rents were not provided to WUSF, and the hospital's release did not list them. The income limits also mean some employees will not qualify. Tampa General has said it will continue connecting workers with outside housing and financial resources.

How it is being paid for

WUSF, citing the hospital, put the total cost at $60 million in a public-private partnership. Public money accounts for a portion of that:

The project also used the Live Local Act, Florida's 2023 affordable housing law, to streamline local approval, WUSF reported. The law lets qualifying affordable and workforce developments move through zoning more quickly when they set aside units for income-qualified renters.

Why a hospital is building apartments

Tampa General leaders framed the project as a recruitment and retention tool. WUSF reported that an internal survey of the hospital's team members in 2023 identified affordable housing as a pressing need.

"When we care for our team, they are better prepared to care for the patients we serve," John Couris, president and CEO of Florida Health Sciences Center, which does business as Tampa General, said in the release. Speaking at the groundbreaking, Couris described workforce housing in a growing metro area as, in his words to WUSF, "sort of a good problem to have but still a problem to solve," and said the hospital would like to build on the model.

Qualenta Kivett, Tampa General's executive vice president and chief people and talent officer, said in the release that access to affordable housing and child care within a manageable commute are barriers for employees. She told WUSF the apartments were designed with workers at the Davis Islands campus in mind. That campus is the main teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

Kivett described The Linden as one solution. For Tampa General's roughly 15,000 employees statewide, she said, the hospital is also negotiating discounted rates at existing apartment complexes and rental properties.

The county's role, and the Amendment 3 question

Hillsborough County commissioners attended the ceremony. "People cannot afford to find a home. We are going to change that," Commissioner Gwen Myers said, according to the release. Commissioner Chris Boles said the event was about putting a solution into the ground rather than talking about a problem.

Myers also signaled limits on what the county can promise for future projects. She told WUSF the county's ability to do more may depend on the effects of Amendment 3, the recently passed ballot measure that cuts property taxes and is expected to significantly reduce city and county budgets. She said she wanted to say yes to more but would have to see what the county board decides once the amendment's effects are clear.

That uncertainty matters for projects like this one, which leaned on both state and county dollars to close the gap between construction costs and rents that middle-income workers can afford.

A growing trend for Florida employers

The Linden reflects a strategy of using land an employer already owns to lower the cost of building for its own workers. Mick Flanagan, chief investment officer at The Michaels Organization, said in the release that the company was proud to partner with Tampa General on what he called an innovative solution to the hospital's attainable housing needs.

Plans for the Delaney Creek Boulevard complex were first reported in 2024, when the Tampa Bay Times described a $60 million apartment project for hospital and USF Health workers at below-market rents. Bay News 9 reported on the plan again in September 2025. Earlier coverage had projected a groundbreaking in August 2026, so the ceremony came a few months later than first expected.

What's next

With construction now underway, the next milestone is completion and lease-up ahead of the projected late summer 2028 opening. Tampa General has not yet released rents or an application process for employees. Those details, along with how many of the 170 units go to each bedroom type, are likely to come closer to opening.

The hospital has said it wants to expand the model. Whether Hillsborough County can help fund the next project will depend in part on how Amendment 3 reshapes local budgets in the coming year.