Jan. 28, 2025
By Dave Scheiber

Joey and Jennifer Redner, the founder of Tampa’s Cigar City Brewing and his wife, have made a $2.2 million donation to USF — a transformative gift that has been brewing for quite some time. Half of the gift will support the university’s cutting-edge, on-campus stadium project in Tampa and half is dedicated to training craft-beer entrepreneurs through a growing brewing arts program on the St. Petersburg campus.

“We deeply appreciate this generous gift from Joey and Jennifer Redner that will truly make a difference for many years to come,” said USF President Rhea Law. “Their support will help to enrich the University of South Florida experience for our students and grow the university’s impact in the community.”

For Joey Redner, who was born and raised in Tampa, the gift was motivated by wanting to support a Tampa institution. 

“It really boils down to my gratitude for the life I have been able to build in my hometown,” he said. “USF's goals align with mine — to have a positive impact on the Tampa Bay area.”

The gift represents the latest step in a long-time business journey for Redner. A sixth-generation Floridian, he believed the local microbrewery scene needed a major boost. It led him initially to write a blog that attracted a heavy following of beer lovers. And that sparked his desire to take his passion to the next level, founding Cigar City Brewing in 2007 — choosing a name that connected to Tampa’s colorful roots as a center of cigar manufacturing, while committing to a dream of producing top-quality beer.

"I had been a fan of craft beer and traditional beer styles for years and it always struck me as a shame that a city the size of Tampa did not have a packaging craft brewery,” Redner said. “I kept expecting someone else to open one, but got tired of waiting and decided to do it myself."

With equity investment from family, he founded the business with two employees and a plan to eventually sell 5,000 barrels of beer annually. That first year, Joey sold 1,000 barrels. It was an encouraging start and by 2015 — boosted by partnerships with beer distributors and grocery chains — the Cigar City product was flowing with 60,000 barrels per year and more than 50 employees.

The popularity of his product coincided with a microbrewery boom across Tampa Bay, and eventually Redner made the difficult choice to sell the booming business in 2016 to Colorado-based Oskar Blues Brewery. 

“Success for the brewery meant for me coming to terms that I was running a very different business than what I originally envisioned,” he explained. “A large brewery requires a large capital commitment and an all-encompassing life commitment. Ultimately, it made more sense for the life I wanted to sell the business and focus on smaller projects. Today I am involved as an investor in several smaller breweries in the Tampa Bay area and beyond. In that role, I can offer guidance and support in an environment more akin to the early craft beer industry that I became enamored with.”

Redner was eager to support USF students hoping to learn the ropes of the burgeoning field. The gift represents a significant boon to the university’s brewing arts program, taught as a 23-week online course that provides participants with foundational knowledge and hands-on training for successful craft-brewing careers.

Jennifer Redner, meanwhile, has kept more than busy these days as president of the condo association for the Redners’ beach property that was pummeled by hurricanes Helene and Milton, while managing their busy family office and household. 

Originally from New Jersey, she crafted a career in the telecom field in sales and network implementation. 

“She was my biggest cheerleader opening the brewery and it was her income in telecom that let me work for free at the brewery for two years while getting off the ground,” Redner said. 

The couple has been married for 21 years and has four daughters. One of them, Zoey, is a huge Bulls football fan who attends most of the games with her dad, who has followed the team since it was founded in 1997. 

The Redners’ stadium gift is the latest in a series of philanthropic contributions from others to a state-of-the-art facility that celebrated its official groundbreaking in November. It will open in 2027, a home to Bulls football, women’s lacrosse and many other events.

“We are deeply grateful to Joey and Jennifer Redner for their generosity and vision in support of USF and the Tampa Bay community as a whole,” said Jay Stroman, CEO of the USF Foundation. “I am inspired by their commitment to elevating these exciting initiatives at USF at a time of bold growth for the university.”