The 74-unit Tampa Airport Motel opened in 1961 at 2222 Westshore Blvd. Modern accommodations included complimentary in-room continental breakfast and an intercom in every room connected directly to the front desk for special message service. It claimed that it was 60 seconds south of Tampa International Airport. The bar here was called the Ready Room Lounge and featured national and regional acts and a piano bar for dining and dancing nightly. The restaurant offered food service until midnight, featuring prime rib and other high-end dishes, and the lounge was open until 3 AM.

In 1963, the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority considered granting a forty-year lease for an 18-hole U-shaped public golf course that wrapped around the East and of the runway at Tampa International Airport, with 67 acres fronting Dale Mabry Highway. It would be called the Dale Mabry Country Club and would cost $500,000 to complete. Due to political infighting, it never came to fruition. In 1973, industrialist Jim Walter, who had owned the Tampa airport Motel for ten years, finally began constructing the 130-acre Tampa Airport Resort Golf and Racquet Club on the leased land. Tampa’s Sol Fleischman Jr. designed the clubhouse. By then, the inn had been enlarged to 190 rooms. In 1976, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team opened their training facility, One Buccaneer Place, on the adjacent property.

In 1978, Richard Corbett, a developer, purchased the inn from Walter for $4 million and, in 1980, transformed it into the Hall of Fame Inn Golf and Tennis Resort with Babes Lounge and the Sam Pam Restaurant. By 1982, plans were being made by Corbett for the development of a multimillion-dollar international commerce center. Hillsborough County Aviation Authority extended the lease until 2057 to accommodate the change. That transaction included the golf course but not the Hall Of Fame Inn.  In 1987, the Hall of Fame finally closed as construction plans began on the 1.2-million-square-foot International Plaza and Bay Street. The contents of the hotel and restaurant were sold, and the building was demolished. One Buccaneer Place was not affected by the mall's construction but later moved to a much larger facility. The Mall opened in September 2001.

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