The contract to construct the neoclassical municipal auditorium in Plant Park was awarded in May of 1925 for $250,214, with contractor McDewitt-Fleming promising completion by December. Municipal bonds funded it. Servant’s quarters from the Tampa Bay Hotel were moved to make way for the 2500-seat facility. Completing the project was complicated by an embargo on steel and building supplies set by three railroad companies servicing the area due to the high demand for foodstuffs as the area's population grew. Its opening night was delayed until October 15, 1926

The facility served as a lecture and dance hall, entertainment venue, and polling place for several decades. In 1960, the building was renamed after prominent Tampa resident D.P. McKay. McKay was the editor and publisher of the Tampa Times and Mayor of Tampa in 1910. A fire in 1993 devasted the building, rendering it uninhabitable. A donation of $ 10 million in 1997 from entrepreneur John Sykes to the University of Tampa led to the re-opening of the site in 2000 as the John H. Sykes College of Business.  

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