“Transformative” seems too mild an adjective for Water Street Tampa, a $3.5-billion revitalization program currently underway along the city’s waterfront. Certainly, the planned 50-acre community of commercial, residential, hospitality, cultural, entertainment, education and retail development totaling more than 9 million sq ft along the Hillsborough River will be a far cry from the ho-hum assortment of empty industrial buildings and parking lots occupying the area before infrastructure construction began in 2017.
But Water Street Tampa is hardly a routine urban makeover. Along with putting Florida’s third-largest city in step with other high-profile live/work/play-oriented redevelopment efforts around the country, the project aspires to set a new standard for sustainability, health and well-being in the built environment that will likely be emulated worldwide.