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A new look at the vision for Water Street Tampa

 
Strategic Property Partners released a new conceptual rendering for its $3 billion project, called Water Street Tampa, being planned jointly by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment private wealth fund. (Rendering courtesy Strategic Property Partners)
Strategic Property Partners released a new conceptual rendering for its $3 billion project, called Water Street Tampa, being planned jointly by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment private wealth fund. (Rendering courtesy Strategic Property Partners)
Published Dec. 5, 2017

TAMPA — For what's billed as a $3 billion project, Water Street Tampa now is still largely just a bunch of sandy parking lots cross-hatched by roads under construction.

But the vision is becoming more clear, and late Monday developers at Strategic Property Partners released one of their most detailed renderings yet for what they want the project to look like.

"That's what we're working towards," said Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who is developing Water Street Tampa with Bill Gates' Cascade Investment fund. "To be able to accomplish that or something really close to that."

What that rendering shows is a fully baked, strikingly vertical urban neighborhood, topped with green:

• A 500-room hotel on Water Street next to the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina. Construction is expected to begin in February.

• The twin towers of a condo and residential building with a grocery store at its base.

• The University of South Florida's 13-story Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Health Institute, now under construction.

• A lot of rooftops covered with grass or landscaping, courtesy of a centralized air-conditioning plant that will free up the tops of buildings for a wide range of amenities.

• A new home for the Museum of Science and Industry, in what's depicted as a multi-story building just east of Amalie Arena.

Construction on some of these buildings has been projected to start as soon as early next year. Other pieces of the project are likely still years away from breaking ground. Strategic Property Partners, a Vinik-Cascade development company, says it is working to release more details about its plans before the holidays.

But for now, there's just this new conceptual rendering.

Still, as a teaser, it works.

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