TAMPA - Bob Martinez oversaw the construction of office buildings and high-rise residential apartments that changed Tampa's skyline. Sandy Freedman gave us the convention center and aquarium. Dick Greco drew developers to the city's downtown and new businesses to Ybor City, while annexing huge tracts of land into the city.

Nearly every Tampa mayor has left behind a legacy of brick and mortar on this city - landmarks that will indelibly be tied to their years at the helm.

For Mayor Pam Iorio, who is finishing her last year in office, that legacy will be the city's arts and cultural district, a multimillion-dollar endeavor that draws closer to completion with Saturday's grand opening of the new Tampa Museum of Art.

The 66,000-square-foot museum overlooks the Hillsborough River and - along with the renovated Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, which reopened last weekend, and the Glazer Children's Museum, to be unveiled later this year - will be the centerpiece of Iorio's much-touted efforts to transform the riverfront property into a regional hub for the arts.

"This is something that our community has long needed," Iorio said recently. "It will give our residents a reason to come downtown and make us a real destination for visitors."

The project cost more than $31 million, with about $18.5 million in public money, mostly from the half-cent Community Investment Tax approved by voters in 1996.

The museum contributed about $10.1 million to the project from private donations.

About $1 million of the museum's financial contributions goes to pay Stanley Saitowitz, the San Francisco-based architect who designed the ultra-modern building.

The city also chipped in $2.5 million more in public money to pay for a chiller for the building's air-conditioning system, money the museum is obligated to repay.

To be sure, the road to the new art museum wasn't an easy one.

There were political squabbles between the Iorio administration, city council members and museum officials about money and a site. Art museum leaders initially had trouble getting financing. Then they had to hire a new architect.

"It's been a long time coming," said Todd Smith, the museum's director, who took job about 14 months ago. "There have been many twists and turns to this project."

Talks for a new building started at least a decade ago.

In 1998, under Greco, plans for a cultural arts district called for a new art museum in downtown. In 2001, a plan developed by Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill envisioned a museum close to its location on Ashley Drive.

New York architect Rafael Vinoly was paid about $7 million for a building design. Despite a major private fundraising effort by museum leaders, the $76 million building plan collapsed in early 2005 when the museum couldn't secure financing.

Iorio and museum leaders then debated where to put the new museum - a discussion that included a short-lived proposal to renovate the old federal courthouse on Florida Avenue. But in August 2006, both sides agreed on the Curtis Hixon Park location.

The economy forced the city and museum to take a cafeteria approach to construction costs, putting some amenities for the building on hold until the money was available.

One of those features was exterior decorative LED lighting, which was put back into the project after the museum raised the $275,000 needed.

Cornelia Corbett, the museum board's former chairwoman, and her husband pumped $5 million into the project through a family foundation, the William Stamps Farish Fund.

Tampa businessman and philanthropist Frank Morsani and his wife, Carol, pledged $3 million to the museum's capital and endowment campaigns. The first-floor entrance to the building features a three-story atrium named the Morsani Lobby Atrium.

Smith said that after the building started taking shape last year, the influx of private money increased. Fundraising continues, even with the museum's opening day in sight.

Critics have questioned the use of taxpayer money for a project that some argue should have been paid for exclusively with private dollars.

Iorio said the city needed to step up financially to see the project through.

"This is an investment in Tampa's future," she said. "It's a gift to the community."

Councilwoman Mary Mulhern said the museum will revive downtown.

"All the research shows that the arts brings more money to an area than sports," she said. "The economic benefits to the city from this new museum will be significant."

Smith said the skeptics, once they visit the museum, will be won over.

"In the end," he said, "I think everyone will agree that what we've created here is something special and important for the community."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.