It\u2019s expected to be completed by October 2026.<\/p>\n
ALSO READ: Renovation will begin on the historic Ybor City Sanchez y Haya building<\/a><\/p>\n Spearheading the effort are the owners of the J.C. Newman Cigar Company, whose El Reloj cigar factory sits directly across the street from the Sanchez y Haya building.<\/p>\n \n 1 of 2 The original concrete-and-rebar structure of the Sanchez y Haya building is visible through a third-story window of the El Reloj cigar factory.<\/p>\n Gabriella Paul \/ WUSF<\/p>\n \n 2 of 2 The El Reloj cigar factory, which means “the clock” in Spanish, is visible through stone columns on the second story of the Sanchez y Haya building. <\/p>\n Gabriella Paul \/ WUSF<\/p>\n Drew Newman, the fourth-generation owner of the cigar factory, said the two buildings have a shared history.<\/p>\n “Our El Reloj cigar factory opened on March 31, 1910, and the Sanchez y Haya Building opened a few months later. The buildings were built independently, but…they were designed to work together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Sanchez y Haya building \u2014 once a 15-room hotel, cigar lounge and cafe \u2014 was a popular gathering spot for cigar workers in the city more than a century ago.<\/p>\n It was built by Ignacio Haya \u2014 the first man to roll cigars in Tampa \u2014 and his business partner, Serafin Sanchez, in 1910.<\/p>\n Since then, it\u2019s taken many forms \u2014 a grocery store, a coffee mill, a knitting store and even a Prohibition-era speakeasy \u2014 before falling into decline, according to a City of Tampa release<\/a>.<\/p>\n A worker hand-rolls a cigar at El Reloj, a factory operated by J.C. Newman Cigar Co. in Tampa.<\/p>\n In 2020, the Newman family bought the building for $650,000 with the intention of restoring the building to its original purpose.<\/p>\n Local, state and federal partners are investing in the vision, too.<\/p>\n The Newman\u2019s restoration recently received a $5 million grant from the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), as well as a $600,000 historic preservation grant from Hillsborough County and a $2.3 million federal tax credit from the National Park Service, according to the budget summary.<\/p>\n Once complete, Newman hopes the project will enshrine an important chapter in Tampa\u2019s history \u2014 one that earned it the nickname of \u201cCigar City.\u201d<\/p>\n How Tampa became ‘Cigar City’<\/p>\n During the heyday of the cigar industry in Tampa, there were around 200 factories, like El Reloj, producing more than 700 million cigars a year.<\/p>\n \u201cCigars are to Tampa, just like cars are to Detroit and wine is to Napa Valley. Cigars are so important to the history of our community because it was the cigar industry that fueled Tampa’s economy and its growth from a tiny village into the city that it is today,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n Between 1880 and 1930, the population in Tampa jumped from around 700 to more than 100,000 people.<\/p>\n Many of them were immigrants from Cuba, Spain, Italy and Germany who came to work in Tampa\u2019s burgeoning cigar industry.<\/p>\n “When Mr. Ybor decided to come to Tampa in 1885 the rest of the cigar industry followed, and Tampa was filled with waves of immigrants from all around the world,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n Vincente Martinez Ybor, for whom Ybor City is named, is revered as the godfather of the cigar industry in Tampa. But, famously, he was not the first to roll a cigar in the city.<\/p>\n That title belongs to Ignacio Haya, and his business partner, Serafin Sanchez, who opened the first cigar factory, Sanchez y Haya Co., on Seventh Avenue in Ybor City.<\/p>\n And later, in 1910, they opened a hotel and cafe near Columbus Avenue and 16th Street.<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D\u2013Tampa) walks toward the podium during a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony for the restoration of the Sanchez y Haya building on Nov. 25. <\/p>\n Keeping the legacy alive <\/p>\n More than a century later, the building is getting new life.<\/p>\n Last week, local leaders, cigar workers and other community members gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony at the historic site.<\/p>\n Christian Klein, a descendant of Serafin Sanchez, was there to witness the big moment in his family\u2019s history.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re standing\u2026in the shadow of a building from 1910 that my great-great-grandfather built to support the cigar workers\u2026and now the Newman family is continuing and restoring it, which is great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Klein said it feels like a full-circle moment to witness the owners of the last operational cigar factory in the country restore his family\u2019s building, which represents an early chapter in the city\u2019s cigar industry.<\/p>\n \n 1 of 2 Serafin Sanchez (seated left) is the great-great-grandfather of Brandenton resident Christian Klein. <\/p>\n Courtesy of Christian Klein<\/p>\n \n 2 of 2 Christian Klein, a descendant of Serafin Sanchez, smiles in front of the Sanchez y Haya building undergoing restoration during a groundbreaking ceremony. <\/p>\n Gabriella Paul \/ WUSF<\/p>\n Newman said it\u2019s been a long process to get to this point. <\/p>\n This has included purchasing the building, securing financing, reinforcing the integrity of the concrete-and-rebar structure and even rehoming 5,000 fruit bats<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would have been far easier and cheaper and faster to knock the Sanchez y Haya building down and build a replica of it in its place, but I was afraid doing so would cause us to lose the building’s character and spirit and history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Like the cigar-making process, Newman said doing things right takes time.<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Sanchez y Haya building\n <\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Sanchez y Haya El Reloj clock tower\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Serafin Sanchez\n <\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Sanchez y Haya building\n <\/p>\n