Water Street Tampa executive returns to firm working on Amazon's Washington D.C. headquarters project

Times Staff Writer

TAMPA — In the world of commercial real estate, there aren't a lot of projects bigger or more far-reaching than the $3 billion plan for Water Street Tampa, but arguably one of them is the Amazon headquarters project in Washington D.C.

Now Bryan Moll, who until last month was executive vice president and director of development for Strategic Property Partners, the developer for Water Street Tampa, has gone from a company doing a Tampa-scale big project to one working on an Amazon-scale big project.

After about two years with Strategic, a partnership between Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment, Moll has returned to his former employer, JBG Smith, as executive vice president. JBG is a Washington D.C.-based real estate company that is developing National Landing, the site in Arlington, Va., that Amazon chose this month, along with New York City, for a two-city headquarters expansion. Each site is expected to gain 25,000 jobs as a result of Amazon's arrival.

A spokesman for JBG Smith confirmed that Moll has returned to the firm, but said the company would not discuss his work there. Moll did not return a message left on his office voicemail this week.

National Landing lies across the Potomac River from Washington D.C., and includes an area known as Crystal City. There, JBG Smith owns 6.2 million square feet of existing office space and 2,850 apartments. It controls another 7.4 million square feet of development opportunities, not including Amazon's proposed land purchase.

Strategic Property Partners CEO James Nozar, who has worked with Moll for 12 years in Washington D.C. and Tampa, said Moll was a great partner who helped build Strategic's team from six people to 53 employees.

"This is a great leap for him," Nozar said earlier this month. "We're in a really good spot, and Bryan helped get us to that spot."

With Moll's departure, Nozar said Strategic named construction executive Charlie Rollins, who has been with the company since January 2017, as head of development.

Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times.