TAMPA, Fla. – When David Bailey and Stephanie Harrison-Bailey built their 440 square foot tiny home in Ybor City, it was because they envisioned a future there.
“We've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this house,” said Bailey.
However, when the Tampa Bay Rays announced Ybor City as a preferred location for a new stadium, the couple wondered how it would impact their lives, even though the current proposal does not call for any private homes to be acquired.
"People want to know how it's going to work,"Bailey said. "With the site being as tiny as it is, the stadium barely fits on the site. That means that other locations are going to be needed for other support like parking and hotels and things like that, so if things like eminent domain come into the conversation, that's definitely going to upset the neighborhood because you're just taking people's property from them."
If their land is needed and the price is right, they have a plan.
"If for whatever reason this site does want to become a high-rise hotel across the stadium, we can literally pick [the house] up very easily like they do with historic houses around here and move them, but that would not be our first choice right now,” Harrison-Bailey said.
But the couple would rather not have to execute that plan.
"I don't think we're interested in leaving anytime soon," said David.
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