{"id":216815,"date":"2026-04-03T00:14:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/216815\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T00:14:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:14:21","slug":"city-of-tampa-approves-zion-cemetery-land-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/216815\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Tampa approves Zion Cemetery land swap"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A memorial for Zion Cemetery<\/a> in Tampa is one step closer to reality.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Built in 1901, Zion Cemetery<\/a> is the oldest African-American cemetery in Tampa. Over the years, it was replaced by businesses in public housing, with hundreds of people left buried underneath
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On Thursday, Tampa City Council approved a land swap with restauranteur Richard Gonzmart
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Family members with loved ones buried there are relieved that the project will take place
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The Zion Memorial project is expected to cost more than $8 million<\/p>\n

Built in 1901, Zion is the oldest African-American cemetery in Tampa. Over the years, it was replaced by businesses in public housing, with hundreds of people left buried underneath.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Tampa City Council members approved a land swap with restauranteur Richard Gonzmart. He owned a piece of the property off Florida Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of the swap, Gonzmart will donate that property to the Zion Memorial. In return, Gonzmart’s company will develop a building next to Ulele restaurant in Tampa Heights that’s been part of a legal dispute after being first awarded by the city in 2012.<\/p>\n

The swap will allow for a memorial to be built on the Zion property.<\/p>\n

“Those are people, human beings that have been discarded, and I never could understand that,” said Gonzmart.<\/p>\n

This deal has been six years in the making. Tampa’s mayor says this is just the beginning.<\/p>\n

“Moving forward, preserving and protecting Zion Cemetery is an ongoing process,” said Mayor Jane Castor.<\/p>\n

“We have 90% of the land that we need,” said Leroy Moore of the Zion Preservation and Maintenance Society<\/a>. “We should be able to proceed with funding pursuits and fundraising to get the memorial design designed and eventually constructed.”<\/p>\n

Sunstate Towing still has a piece of property that sits on top some of the graves. A lawyer for the owner of Sunstate Towing says there have been no negotiations with the city.<\/p>\n

Zion board members say they can still move forward with the memorial, and family members with loved ones buried there are relieved. Geraldine Williams is a board member, and her great-great grandmother is buried at Zion.<\/p>\n

“People upon death are expected to rest in peace,” Williams said. “And I think she is finally on her way.”<\/p>\n

The Zion Memorial project is expected to cost more than $8 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A memorial for Zion Cemetery in Tampa is one step closer to reality. What You…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,4252,276,115,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-216815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-top-stories","9":"tag-dalia-dangerfield","10":"tag-hillsborough-county","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tampa","13":"tag-tampa-headlines","14":"tag-tampa-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216815","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=216815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}