4-acre entertainment district to be built in downtown Tampa

Strategic Property Partners, the developers behind Water Street Tampa, is building an entertainment district that will bring a live performance space, hotel and additional parking to a rapidly growing section of downtown.

The district, developed in partnership with the Vinik Sports Group, which will manage the venue, will be built on a vacant 4-acre lot across from the Benchmark International Arena recognizable to most anyone whose attended a game or event at the venue. It sits between Channelside Drive and East Brorein Street on one side and South Morgan Street and South Jefferson Street on the other.

The plans call for:

• A 3,500-seat music and performance space.
• A 250-room hotel featuring indoor and outdoor amenities.
• 100,000 square feet of retail, dining, and entertainment.
• More than 1,000 parking spaces.

VSG and SPP describe it both as the evolution of the $3 billion, 56-acre Water Street Tampa development in the macro sense and an expansion of Ford Thunder Alley outside the arena in the micro.

However one choses to label it, the planned district will bring even more life to a part of downtown being transformed in a way that even the most forward-thinking citizen could not have possibly imagined even 40 years ago.

One of the key pieces of the project, the developers say in the statement, is the performance space.

Given its size, it will be able to attract the type of developing artist to Tampa that’s building a fanbase but not yet big enough to fill Benchmark, the Yuengling Center or Raymond James Stadium.

This, says Steve Griggs, CEO of VSG, strengthens “the entertainment ecosystem surrounding the arena, forging the live entertainment center.”

“A venue of this size provides much needed flexibility for booking more artists and world-class shows to our region,” he says in the statement.

According to the statement, construction on the project will begin in 2027 and when complete will be managed by SPP and VSG.