Major Tampa Bay projects still mostly on track for Super Bowl 55

In early February, with exactly one year to go before Super Bowl 55 in Tampa, contractors said they were working to open seven projects with a combined value of more than $1 billion for the championship.

For the most part, that’s still the case despite the economic turmoil created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s a project-by-project update:

St. Pete Pier

800 Second Ave. NE, St. Petersburg

Once scheduled for May 30, the opening date of the new $92 million pier was postponed “a little bit longer,” Mayor Rick Kriseman said last week, because of the likelihood of continued restrictions on public gatherings. The centerpiece of downtown St. Petersburg’s urban waterfront, the new pier will include 26 acres of reconfigured public space with a $1 million wooden playground, public art, a fishing deck, new places to eat and drink and a discovery center with hands-on marine exhibits. “Stay tuned for a new date,” Kriseman said. “It will be worth the wait.”

JW Marriott

510 Water St., Tampa

The website for the $200 million-plus JW Marriott hotel in the Water Street Tampa mega-development says the hotel will open in November, which is consistent with what the hotel’s general manager said last month. When finished, the 26-story hotel will include 519 rooms, a big ballroom and what’s touted as the highest rooftop bar in the city. By connecting it with the neighboring Tampa Marriott Water Street via an elevated walkway, the two hotels will offer a combined 1,200 hotel rooms.

Midtown Tampa

Northeast corner of N Dale Mabry and W Cypress St., just south of Interstate 275, Tampa

“We haven’t missed a day of work” and “have had little to no disruptions in the supply chain,” said Nick Haines, president and chief executive officer of The Bromley Companies, the developer of the $550 million Midtown Tampa project. “The schedule remains (for) substantial completion by the Super Bowl.”

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Construction crews topped out the eight-story Midtown One office building on March 15 and the dual-branded Aloft and Element hotel on March 26. A new Whole Foods Market is scheduled to be turned over to the grocery store company in late July. The 22-acre project also includes specialty outdoor retailer REI Co-op, 400 apartments, and restaurants ranging from a new location for local chef Chris Ponte to the Oprah Winfrey-backed True Food Kitchen to the bay area’s first Shake Shack.

Haya Hotel

1412 E Seventh Ave., Tampa

The $52 million Hotel Haya in Ybor City is taking reservations beginning Sept. 1. The four-story hotel includes 176 rooms, a 152-seat restaurant and 42-seat cafe. The location is one of Ybor City’s most storied sites. In 1898, cavalrymen from Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” are said to have ridden into the dining room at the Las Novedades restaurant in “the Charge of the Yellow Rice Brigade.” Later it was the home of the notorious El Dorado casino.

Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement

355 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg

“I can say with confidence that there are many, many major events planned around the Super Bowl, and we certainly intend on being part of the festivities,” Tom Magoulis, the executive director of the organization behind the 137,000-square-foot Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, said in an email.

“Unfortunately, given the situation around the COVID-19 and the uncertainty it presents, we hesitate making any new announcement around an opening date,” Magoulis said. “We would not want museum-goers from around the country making travel and lodging arrangements to visit on a certain date when there is still so much up in the air."

Collector Rodolfo “Rudy” Ciccarello is financing the $90 million museum privately and stocking it with his collection of more than 2,000 pieces of art, furniture, ceramics, glass, lighting and other objects from the American Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. Finishing touches are underway on the building, and fixtures and art are being moved in, Magoulis said.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium

249 Windward Passage, Clearwater

Mid to late this year is still the projected opening date for an $80 million expansion of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, the home of Winter the Dolphin, near Clearwater Beach. The expanded facility will have a total of 103,000 square feet of guest space, five times what it has now, 400 more parking spots and more living space for rescued dolphins, more education space and more room for more wildlife rehabilitation.

Hyatt House/Hyatt Place hotels

Southeast corner of N Florida Avenue and E Kennedy Boulevard, Tampa

HRI Communities of New Orleans is looking at opening its new dual-branded hotel in the first quarter of 2021. “We really won’t be able to refine the project opening date until September,” HRI Communities president Josh Collen said in an email. The 17-story building is going up on a former parking lot across from Tampa City Hall and will have a 230-room Hyatt Place Hotel and a 115-room extended-stay Hyatt House Hotel, plus meeting space, ground floor retail space and a public parking garage.