If you took your dog to Two Shepherds Taproom on a Friday night sometime this spring, you might not have realized you were there for the last one. On May 29, the Grady Avenue spot that made its name as Tampa's first indoor-outdoor dog bar hosted one final dog-friendly shift, then quietly stopped being a dog bar. No dramatic farewell tour, no extended closing sale. A social media post explained that the taproom was pivoting into a permanent event space instead.
That is the small, concrete thing that actually happened in Drew Park this year. The big, speculative thing everyone keeps talking about, a Tampa Bay Rays ballpark on part of Hillsborough Community College's Dale Mabry campus, still hasn't happened, and the deadline the Rays themselves set for locking down agreements already passed months ago with no public resolution. If you live or work in Drew Park, the distinction between those two facts matters more than any stadium rendering.
What Actually Happened on Grady Avenue
Two Shepherds opened at 4813 N. Grady Ave. as the brainchild of Ross O'Bryan and Patrick Verdugo, two USF alumni who named the place after their own dogs, a German Shepherd named Hobbes and an Australian Shepherd named Cooper. At more than 14,000 square feet of combined indoor and outdoor space, with K9 turf, a splash pad, and 20 rotating taps, it became the largest venue of its kind in the metro, a status it held even as Tampa's off-leash dog bar scene shifted around it. Pups Pub on West Kennedy Boulevard closed in 2025 after a Florida appellate ruling on the state's food hygiene code complicated the indoor dog bar model statewide.
Two Shepherds survived that regulatory scare, then made its own decision anyway. The May announcement framed the shift as evolution rather than failure: the taproom said it was proud of the community it built and planned to expand its relationship with Gambit Games, a board game shop that had recently moved into part of the property. The space now operates as The Shop, an indoor-outdoor event venue advertising festival-scale capacity for 500 or more guests, a covered stage, and the same all-weather turf grounds left over from its dog bar days. It still sits a mile from Raymond James Stadium and five minutes from Tampa International Airport, the same location that made it a destination in the first place.
Nobody has published a clear account of what happened to memberships or staff during the transition. What is clear is that the pivot had nothing to do with a ballpark that hasn't been approved. It happened on its own timeline, for its own reasons, weeks before Drew Park's redevelopment committee even met to talk about crosswalks.
The Money That Didn't Wait for a Yes
That committee meeting is the second half of the story, and it's the one carrying real dollar figures. Earlier this month, the Drew Park Community Redevelopment Area's Community Advisory Committee reviewed a set of infrastructure projects that city staff described as having been in the works for years. What changed isn't the scope of the work. It's the urgency, driven by the possibility, not the certainty, of a ballpark landing nearby.
Here's what's actually budgeted right now:
- A street upgrade package covering 78 crosswalks created or remarked, more than 150 new parking spaces, and rebuilt sidewalk connections, estimated at $7 million to $10 million
- $2.9 million set aside for a new neighborhood park on Hubert Avenue
- $2.3 million for landscaping and other improvements along Lois and Grady Avenues, the same corridor where Two Shepherds sits
For years, the Lois and Grady streetscape work existed mostly as conceptual renderings. City records show the project sitting at "plans submitted for ROW permit" status, and the Hubert Avenue park lingered at "conceptual design completed" while staff worked on construction procurement. Those are the kinds of status updates that can sit untouched for a long time. What moved them wasn't a finished stadium deal. It was a draft one.
One CAC member kept pressing city staff on a simple question during the meeting: will shovels actually be in the ground this year. Nobody in the room could promise that. Which tells you something useful about how to read all of this. The dollars are committed. The construction timeline is not.
Where the Ballpark Actually Stands
The Rays released a draft memorandum of understanding earlier this year proposing a ballpark and mixed-use district on a portion of HCC's Dale Mabry campus, with a target opening of March 1, 2029. The draft projected 40,000 full-time equivalent jobs and $34 billion in direct economic impact over 30 years, numbers that describe a best-case scenario rather than a signed contract. The maximum public contribution outlined in the draft was $1.065 billion, with the City of Tampa responsible for $251 million and Hillsborough County for $750 million.
The Rays had asked for all final agreements to be in place by June 1, 2026, specifically to keep the 2029 opening on schedule. That date has already come and gone. As of this writing, there's no public confirmation that agreements were finalized, and funding remains, in the words of local reporting at the time, a significant hurdle that isn't set in stone.
Business owners near the proposed site are watching closely regardless. Omar Albanil, a boxing coach who grew up in Drew Park and opened Tampa City Boxing there in 2011, put it this way when asked about the neighborhood's prospects:
"It's a part of Tampa is not talked about a lot. It's right in the middle of the Tampa. And if it were to be developed, it's be the missing piece of connecting Tampa altogether."
Luigi Leon, who opened his architecture and exotic car rental business PG Lux in Drew Park in 2024, made a similar case for why he picked the location in the first place: the airport proximity, the warehouse space, the room to host car shows and networking events. Both men are betting on a neighborhood that might get a stadium. Neither is waiting for one.
What's Locked In vs. What's Still a Proposal
| Already happening | Still speculative |
|---|---|
| Two Shepherds' pivot to The Shop event venue, completed May 2026 | Rays ballpark at HCC Dale Mabry campus |
| Gambit Games occupying part of the former taproom space | $1.065B public funding split ($251M city, $750M county) |
| $7M-$10M street, crosswalk, and parking budget approved | March 2029 target opening |
| $2.9M Hubert Avenue park funding approved | Whether construction starts in 2026 at all |
| $2.3M Lois and Grady Avenue streetscape funding approved | 40,000-job and $34B economic impact projections |
The Anchors That Haven't Moved
Not everything in Drew Park is mid-transition. Mom's Place, on North Dale Mabry Highway, has been serving home-style breakfast and lunch since 1993, the kind of budget-friendly diner where the french toast and half-pound burgers haven't needed a rebrand. It has built a reputation as a stop for Yankees players and staff during spring training, a detail that traces back to owner George Steinbrenner's own patronage. It's currently rated 4.3 out of 5 on Tripadvisor and sits at #109 out of nearly 1,800 restaurants in Tampa, which is a solid showing for a diner that opens at 6:30 a.m. and closes by 3.
A few minutes away, Mr. Empanada on West South Avenue keeps its menu simple and its following loyal. Owner Lisa and her staff have built a name on beef and cheese empanadas, guava and cream cheese, and a Cuban sandwich regulars specifically ask for by name. It's the kind of place people write into their New Year's Eve plans, not because it's flashy, but because it's reliably there.
And if you lost your private dog bar this spring, Al Lopez Park still has a public one. At 130 acres, the park named for Al Lopez, Tampa's first Major League player and a Hall of Fame inductee, includes nature trails, a fishing pond, a playground, fitness stations, and a community center, all free, all still open.
What This Actually Looks Like on Your Street
If you live in Drew Park, the practical version of all this is straightforward. Expect survey crews and eventually construction crews on Lois and Grady Avenues sometime this year, though the CAC's own uncertainty about timing means don't expect a firm start date yet. Expect new parking availability once the 150-plus spaces materialize. Expect the building at 4813 N. Grady Ave. to host weddings and corporate events instead of Yappy Hour. None of that requires a stadium deal to close. It's already funded, already decided, already in motion at the pace city infrastructure projects tend to move.
The ballpark conversation will keep generating headlines because a $2.3 billion sports facility is more interesting to write about than a crosswalk audit. But if you're trying to understand what Drew Park actually looks like by the end of 2026, the crosswalk audit is the more reliable predictor.
If you're curious about what's moving through Drew Park's commercial and industrial corridors beyond the storefronts, our breakdown of why Drew Park works for light industrial and flex users covers the property side of this same neighborhood.
Whether you're watching this corridor for a future move or just trying to figure out where to park next month, Alan J. Kronenberg tracks these Tampa Bay neighborhood shifts closely. Let's Connect if you want the fuller picture.
