Brandon

Brandon is the front door to eastern Hillsborough County. It is unincorporated, which surprises people, and it has no city hall, no mayor and no city limits sign. What it has instead is the commercial spine everyone east of Tampa ends up driving: Brandon Boulevard, which is State Road 60, running from the interstate out toward Valrico.

What people mean when they say Brandon

Most of the county’s shopping happens here. Westfield Brandon anchors the middle, and the plazas along SR 60 and Bloomingdale Avenue hold most of the restaurants, trades and services that serve the communities further east. If you live in FishHawk or Valrico or Riverview, Brandon is probably where you get your car fixed.

Getting around

Brandon Boulevard backs up. Locals use Bloomingdale Avenue and Lumsden Road as the east-west alternatives, and Kings Avenue and Parsons Avenue north-south. The Selmon Expressway extension gets you downtown faster than I-75 most mornings.

What we cover here

Road work and lane closures, new restaurants and closings, high school sports at Brandon and Bloomingdale, chamber events, and the businesses worth knowing about.