Pallet, the company behind Tampa Hope’s cottages, shuts down
The Washington manufacturer of roughly 215 Hope Cottages closed this week, leaving customers a warranty page and a parts guide. No city document has ever named the vendor — and council already has a Tampa Hope update on the calendar for September 17.
Pallet, the Washington company that manufactured the prefab cottages at Tampa Hope, shut down this week. PubliCola reported the abrupt closure Wednesday, months after a 75-unit Pallet village opened in Seattle. The company blamed “a lack of funding and a shift in political priorities.” Its website now says “we are closing this chapter of Pallet,” claims more than 6,000 beds shipped across the US and Canada, and leaves customers a warranty information page, a “Village Handbook and Replacement Parts Guide,” and an email address. It says nothing about who services the units from here.
That matters in East Ybor. Roughly 215 Pallet-made cottages sit on the Tampa Hope campus at 3704 E. 3rd Ave., alongside 116 tents. The 100 larger 70-square-foot units unveiled in April were the latest additions with council funding 20 more in May. Whether those 20 arrived before the company closed its doors is the first question worth asking.
City documents don’t mention the manufacturer. Every agenda item, summary sheet, executed agreement, and council transcript says “Hope Cottages.” The vendor shows up only in press coverage — the city release, WUSF, and Catholic Charities’ own site. That’s because the city has never contracted with Pallet. Catholic Charities, Diocese of St. Petersburg is the subrecipient. It buys the units and is reimbursed with federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) dollars. Any warranty would sit with Catholic Charities, not the city.
The public paid for the cottages all the same. The May amendment brought the CDBG “Hope Cottages Acquisition” line to $2,055,739.76, plus $636,132.72 for electrical lines to power them, in a $3,043,546.48 agreement running through June 2027. The May money set aside $400,000 for 20 cottages. What the city and Catholic Charities together pay per unit has climbed with every round: about $10,000 in 2023, $15,000 by late 2024, near $25,000 for the April units, toward which the city put $1.2 million. Seattle paid about $20,000 a unit, five times a wooden alternative, according to PubliCola, and Mayor Katie Wilson said the city will diversify rather than rely on one vendor. Replacing a Tampa Hope cottage now means finding a new one.
Council already has a date. Council Member Charlie Miranda’s motion in July brings Catholic Charities and Feeding Tampa Bay to the September 17 meeting for an update on services “in light of tightening resources.” Pallet’s closure gives that update a sharper focus:
- Who maintains and repairs roughly 215 units now that the manufacturer is gone? Are the air conditioners, locks, and other parts stock items or proprietary?
- What warranty did Catholic Charities hold on each tranche of cottages, and does it survive the closure?
- Were the 20 cottages funded in May delivered before September 3?
- Does the CDBG agreement carry a useful-life or replacement obligation for federally funded “public facilities” if units fail?
- Why has no council document ever named the vendor?
When the city amended this contract in May 2025, I had questions. They went unanswered. This time there’s a date on the calendar.
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