Water Street Tampa to include more than 9 million square feet of commercial, residential, hospitality, educational, entertainment, cultural, and retail space across over 50-acres
TAMPA, Fla. — Strategic Property Partners, LLC (SPP) announced June 27, 2017, the official unveiling of Downtown Tampa’s much-anticipated, new 50-acre mixed-use waterfront neighborhood, Water Street Tampa. Named for the existing historic street that will be transformed into the new heart of Downtown Tampa, Water Street Tampa’s ambitious vision will create one of the largest real estate developments in the United States located within an existing central business district.
Totaling over $3 billion in investment, Water Street Tampa is a multi-phased urban development project that includes more than 9 million square feet of commercial, residential, hospitality, educational, entertainment, cultural, and retail space that will be built out over a 10-year period.
Situated on the Garrison Channel and Hillsborough Bay, Water Street Tampa is surrounded by existing cultural, entertainment and community anchors including the Tampa Convention Center, Amalie Arena where the Tampa Bay Lightning play, Tampa Bay History Center, and Florida Aquarium. Water Street Tampa will connect these community anchors to a network of new and enhanced parks and public areas that lead to the waterfront, the Tampa Riverwalk, and the nearby five mile path along Bayshore Boulevard, offering a variety of passive and active recreational opportunities.
To implement the vision for Water Street Tampa, SPP is currently working with 10 award-winning architectural firms on the design of 18 distinct buildings and 12.9 acres of new and enhanced public space, breathing fresh energy into Tampa’s downtown. The revitalization is already underway with the construction of new roadways, streetscapes, and utility and technology infrastructure work in progress, which will bring distinctive pedestrian-oriented design to Downtown Tampa.
“Water Street Tampa is a story of opportunity and wellbeing, with culture, community, and character on each block. At every level, we aspire to create a well-crafted place that attracts people to come to discover, create, and live their own life stories,” said James Nozar, CEO of SPP. “By bringing together many of the world’s leading talent in architecture, planning, placemaking and community design, we aim to connect people both to each other and to a vibrant and stimulating environment in Downtown Tampa.”
Once completed, Water Street Tampa will include more than two million square feet of new office space, the first new office towers in downtown Tampa in nearly 25 years; one million square feet of new retail, cultural, educational, and entertainment space that complement the active pedestrian experience at the street-level; 3,500 new rental and for-sale residences, nearly doubling the number of housing units available within Downtown Tampa; and two new hotels with over 650 new rooms, including the city’s first 5-star hotel. In total, an estimated 23,000 people will live, work and visit Water Street Tampa each day.
Work on the first phase of vertical construction on Water Street Tampa will begin this year with over four million square feet of new mixed-use office, residential, hospitality, retail, and cultural space across 10 blocks of development scheduled to be complete in 2020. Subsequent phases of the project are expected to be completed by 2027.
In addition, SPP donated an acre of land to the University of South Florida (USF), which will relocate the Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute to Downtown Tampa from its current suburban campus into a new 380,000-square-foot world-class facility, scheduled to begin construction in August 2017 and open in the Fall of 2019.
The development also includes over $200 million in new infrastructure, of which roadway and public utility work began in the summer of 2016. Thanks to a new central cooling facility that will break ground in fall 2017, the individual buildings in the neighborhood will benefit from efficient and reliable district-wide cooling. The centralized cooling will free up the rooftops of the new buildings, where individual cooling towers would typically be located, allowing for lushly landscaped rooftop amenity terraces with panoramic views of Downtown Tampa and Hillsborough Bay.
Water Street Tampa also aims to set a new standard for wellness and sustainability in the built environment. SPP is pursuing both WELL and LEED building certification on individual buildings, and Water Street Tampa will become the world’s first WELL-certified community under the WELL Community Standard, currently being developed by the International Well Building Institute.
Water Street Tampa’s historic transformation will seamlessly blend together a variety of spaces and experiences. From bike paths and green spaces, to specially-curated shopping and culinary experiences, cultural and entertainment venues, educational institutions and more, Water Street Tampa will offer a truly unique lifestyle in a city with amazing natural features and a superior quality of life.
For additional information please visit, www.waterstreettampa.com.
About Strategic Property Partners
Strategic Property Partners (“SPP”) is a real estate development joint venture between Cascade Investment, LLC, and Jeff Vinik. SPP owns or controls more than 50 acres along the downtown Tampa waterfront. The phased development project will revitalize a currently underutilized area and create an urban, mixed-use waterfront district consisting of over 9 million square feet of commercial, residential, hospitality, cultural, entertainment, education, and retail uses, totaling over $3 billion in private investment. Integrating principals of walkability, wellness, sustainability, connectivity, and design quality, SPP intends to transform downtown Tampa into a world-class destination.
