J.C. Newman Cigar Co. has engaged Fly By Night, a nonprofit bat rescue organization, to relocate thousands of bats from the 112-year-old Sanchez y Haya Real Estate Company Building in Ybor City to new, custom bat houses in Cigar Workers Park, which is under construction. This week Fly By Night will be working from sunrise to sunset to patch holes in the Sanchez y Haya building so that J.C. Newman’s bats can leave but not return so that they migrate to their new bat houses.
J.C. Newman is relocating its bat colony now before the bat mating season begins next month. J.C. Newman needs to safely and humanely relocate its bat colony so that it can start the process of restoring the historic Sanchez y Haya building, which has suffered decades of neglect. With the support from Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa, J.C. Newman is restoring the Sanchez y Haya building to the way it was 100 years ago, with a small inn, café, and cigar lounge. The new bat houses are located in Cigar Workers Park, a new outdoor community space which J.C. Newman is building to honor the hundreds of thousands of people who have worked in Tampa’s cigar industry since 1886.
