Water Street is an urban neighborhood located within Downtown Tampa, Florida. The waterfront community stretches 16 blocks and includes residential, commercial, and institutional buildings along the

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater in ...

. The project was developed by Strategic Property Partners, LLC.,a joint venture of Cascade Investment, owned by

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

, the Microsoft co-founder, and

Jeffrey Vinik Jeffrey N. Vinik (born March 22, 1959) is the current owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning and a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox. He served on the board of directors for Liverpool Football Club of the Premier League from 2010–2013. Early life ...

, owner of Tampa Bay Lightning. Phase one of the development of Water Street began in 2017 and phase two is expected to be completed in 2027. The development is estimated to cost $3 Billion and will add 3500 new residences to the city of Tampa. Water Street is the first neighborhood in the world to be certified by the International WELL Building Institute for advancing healthy lifestyles.

Description

The Water Street neighborhood is located in-between the

Channel District Channel District is a residential neighborhood in the City of Tampa that includes an entertainment complex, just east of Downtown Tampa, Florida. It is bordered by Ybor Channel on the east and Garrison Channel on the south. Channelside is a nick ...

to the north-east and Downtown Tampa, Florida to the west. The total area for the area is . Water Street is connected to the downtown financial district and Channel District via the

TECO Line Streetcar The TECO Line Streetcar is a heritage streetcar transit line in Tampa, Florida, run by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transportation Authority (HART), owned by the city of Tampa, and managed by Tampa Historic Streetcar, Inc. It connects Downtown ...

and the

Tampa Riverwalk The Tampa Riverwalk is a open space and pedestrian trail along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida. The Riverwalk extends along most of the downtown Tampa waterfront from the Channelside District on the eastern terminus to the mouth of ...

Residential buildings

Water Street opened its first mixed-use residential building, Heron Residences, in April 2021. Heron is a dual tower conjoined by a garden rooftop and Publix Greenwise Market. The building was designed by architect

Kohn Pedersen Fox Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) is an American architecture firm that provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors. KPF is one of the largest architecture firms in ...

to replicate a coral reef. The Cora is a 23-story mixed-use residential tower designed by architect COOKFOX. In 2022, the Asher, designed by

Morris Adjmi Architects Morris Adjmi Architects is a New York City-based architecture and interior design firm that provides design services to corporate, commercial and residential clients. Background The company was founded by Morris Adjmi (FAIA), a New Orleans native ...

opened, adding 490 residences to the neighborhood.

Hotels

The Water Street neighborhood contains the Tampa EDITION hotel and residence, the Tampa

JW Marriott JW Marriott is a luxury hotel brand owned by Marriott International. History The JW Marriott brand was established in 1984, with the opening of the first hotel in Washington, D.C. It was named as a tribute to J.W. Marriott, the founder of Marri ...

, and the Tampa Marriott. The Tampa EDITION was designed by architect Morris Adjmi and has 172 guest rooms, 38 residences. The JW Marriott opened in the Water Street neighborhood in 2020, making it the 100th hotel built by JW Marriott.

Public art and installations

The Water Street neighborhood features installments of public art including LED sculptures, murals, water fountains, green spaces and digital art. The first installation of public art is titled the "Three Arcs" designed with programmable LEDs by Jim Cambol. An overhead footbridge which connects the JW Marriott and the Water Street Marriott hotel will use digital projection technology to react to the footsteps back and forth called "Halocline Sky" by London artist Jason Bruges. In 2022, Water Street hosted British contemporary artist

Lucy Sparrow Lucy Sparrow (born 8 July 1986) is a contemporary artist originating from Bath, England. She works at the intersection of contemporary art and craft setting the agenda for textiles within the urban art scene. She works mainly with felt and wool ...

'
"Tampa Fresh Foods"
featuring 50,000 grocery items made of felt. Sparrow's Tampa Fresh Foods art installation was up from January 20, 2022 to February 20, 2022 and sponsored by the Vinik Family Foundation and Art Production Fund.

References

{{Tampa neighborhoods , state=expanded Neighborhoods in Tampa, Florida Populated places on Tampa Bay Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in the United States