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TAMPA, Fla. – A piece of Ybor City\u2019s<\/a> smoking history is getting a second life. The Nieto-Fuente House, a building that served as the original home of the Arturo Fuente Cigar Company, has been cleared for a massive restoration project that aims to bridge the gap between Ybor\u2019s past and its modern future.<\/p>\n What we know:<\/p>\n The Tampa City Council has officially granted “Historic Landmark” status to the structure located on North 18th Street.<\/p>\n READ: New \u2018Tampa Bay Timeline\u2019 exhibit explores 14,000 years of regional history<\/a><\/p>\n Built more than a century ago by Vicente Nieto and purchased by the Fuente family in 1956, the home is a rare “Buckeye-style” building, a precursor to modern mixed-use developments.<\/p>\n “This is one of the last standing Buckeye-style types of architecture,” said Liana Fuente, who now owns the property and gave FOX 13 a tour, describing how workers would make, roll and move cigars through the building. “They would take the cigars all the way up through this little, we believe, there was a little pulley system.”<\/p>\n The restoration plan involves converting the second story, where the Fuente family once lived, into four modern apartments. The ground floor, which once housed rows of cigar rollers, will be repurposed for Ybor-centric businesses and local artists.<\/p>\n MORE: Lovers\u2019 Oak: The history behind tree along Lake Morton that\u2019s been around as long as the City of Lakeland<\/a><\/p>\n Why you should care:<\/p>\n To Liana, preserving the Nieto-Fuente House is about helping to maintain Ybor City\u2019s roots.<\/p>\n The walls still bear the handwriting of Liana\u2019s grandfather, used to separate different cigar brands, which Liana wants to keep intact.<\/p>\n During a city council meeting last month, council members commended Liana on her plan to restore the home.<\/p>\n “When we talk about Tampa history<\/a> or Ybor City, we\u2019re not just going through photos, but we can take people to the structure and say, hey, this exists and we preserved it,” said Tampa City Council member Guido Maniscalco.<\/p>\n READ: Historic Limona Cemetery in Brandon commemorates 150th anniversary: \u2018Those are our ancestors\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n For the Fuente family, the project is deeply personal. The Arturo Fuente brand has since grown into a global powerhouse with operations in the Dominican Republic, but its roots remain firmly planted in this 18th Street factory.<\/p>\n “This is my gift back to the city,” Fuente said. “Not only do I get to preserve my legacy, but my family\u2019s name that came before me.”<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n While Liana is careful about establishing a strict timeline for the project, she said she hopes to have the restoration completed in about 18 months.<\/p>\n She noted that she is in no hurry to cut corners, echoing a philosophy passed down through generations of cigar makers.<\/p>\n “[My grandfather] would always tell me, ‘Liana, just like cigars, we do not rush the hands of time,'” Fuente said. “I want to do this right.”<\/p>\n The landmark status ensures the building\u2019s footprint will remain a permanent fixture of the Ybor City landscape as work begins.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story came from an interview with Liana Fuente, along with comments from Tampa City Council members during a recent meeting in January.<\/p>\n Ybor City<\/a>Tampa Bay History<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – A piece of Ybor City\u2019s smoking history is getting a second life. The Nieto-Fuente House,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,115,135,3224,137,136,628,10364],"class_list":["post-149701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-history","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us","tag-ybor-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cigar-factory-house-2.jpg\")
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