Tax collector to add Drew Park office

TAMPA Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden has chosen the Tampa neighborhood of Drew Park to build a new service center where customers can get drivers licenses, birth certificates and concealed weapons permits.

Construction of the new 25,000-square-foot building is expected to begin next month at 4100 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Belden said the office will be open for business in September.

The new building will replace the tax collectors office at the Lowes and Target shopping center at 6283 W. Waters Ave.

Belden said he is saving taxpayers between $1.5 million and $2 million because hes building the new office on state-owned land once occupied by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. As part of a deal Belden worked out with the state, the motor vehicles department will use 5,000 square feet of the new building for administrative work.

Taxpayers also will save about $400,000 a year on rent the tax collector was paying at the Waters Avenue site. He is leasing the land on Martin Luther King Boulevard from the state for a dollar a year.

The new construction is Beldens latest move to expand services and provide them in offices closer to taxpayers. In April, he opened a new office building on county-owned land on Falkenburg Road. By leasing government-owned land at minimal cost for the two newest buildings, Belden said he saved taxpayers $3 million in land acquisition.

The building boom is being driven in part by the Florida Legislatures 2010 mandate that the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles close most of its offices. As a result, many motor vehicle department duties, such as issuing drivers licenses and license plates, are being transferred to county tax collectors.

Written and road tests for new drivers licenses are now being given at the tax collectors office on East Hillsborough Avenue. Belden said his office leases the East Hillsborough site for $350 a year.

Eventually the road tests will be given at two other locations, one in Plant City and the other in south Hillsborough.

We want to geographically cover all of Hillsborough County, Belden said.

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Tax collector to add Drew Park office