The “Hey Joe” sign at 305 W Hillsborough Ave. Credit: Hey Joe Tampa/Facebook

One of Tampa’s most prominent local developers wants to bring a popular, private-label, grocery store to his neighborhood.

Armature Works co-owner Adam Harden is currently pushing to bring Trader Joe’s fourth Tampa Bay location to Seminole Heights.

It all started this summer with a mysterious “Hey Joe” campaign, which so far includes a dedicated website, social media posts and even physical signage in the neighborhood.

Yesterday, Harden told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that he’s the person behind the effort.

Harden and his kids, along with the local landscaping company J. Macias Tree Services, volunteered last Saturday to help put up a banner at the old Save A Lot location on Hillsborough Ave.

The banner, showing a coyote playing guitar along with the phrase,“Hey Joe! Bring Trader Joe’s to Seminole Heights,” features a QR code linking to an online petition.

Harden has not yet told CL how many people have signed on.

The Save A Lot, located at 305 W Hillsborough Ave., closed last July. But Harden’s AMH Family Holdings LLC, together with construction lawyer David Harper’s Millers Marina Holdings LLC completed a $3.3 million purchase of the property last month, according to property records.

Hardens’s newly-formed Sustaining New Heights LLC owns the parcel.

After speaking to the community, Hardens says the neighborhood chose a Trader Joe’s. “Rather than quietly putting up a “For Lease” sign, we wanted to ask the neighborhood what it wanted,” Harden told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “The response was immediate that people wanted another grocery store, and Trader Joe’s was overwhelmingly the name we kept hearing.”

For decades, the former Save A Lot location has hosted various, now shuttered grocery stores, which is why Harden feels the 14,500-square-foot property is ideal for a TJ’s.

“We’re trying to preserve the 65-year grocery store that’s been at the edge of our neighborhood,” Harden said. “It opened in 1960 as a Carnival Food and was changed into a Kash n’ Karry in 1963, and later became a Save A Lot. Understanding that it was going vacant, we thought it was important that our neighborhood maintain a grocery store.”

Asked about the joke that a Trader Joe’s is the final gentrification boss for a neighborhood, Harden called BS.

Seminole Heights, he said, has produced some of the city’s most notable citizens, including mayors and the principal people who have buildings named after them on Franklin Street and Ybor City. 

“I think we try to focus on quality urban development, and in this instance, it’s four blocks from my house,” Harden said. “The nature, the brand of the grocery store, it’s going to save a 65-year-old grocery store location is gentrification? I just disagree with that.”

Harden, who loves the teeny tiny avocados and seeded bread at TJs, also said that if Trader Joe’s doesn’t end up choosing to lease the location, he will look to other grocery stores.

“If we are unable to get Trader Joe’s attention, then we would need to move on and look at other grocers that are active in the market,” said Harden. 

The location would be within six miles of another `Trader Joe’s location at 3808 W Swann Ave. in South Tampa.

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This article appears in August 27 – September 02, 2026.

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