Sparkman Wharf: More Major Development Coming To Downtown Tampa

TAMPA, FL – After years of struggling with vacant storefronts, sparse crowds and lackluster revenues, Channelside Bay Plaza in downtown Tampa is being reinvented as Sparkman Wharf.

On Thursday, July 26, development company Strategic Property Partners announced plans to give the beleaguered channelside plaza a complete facelift.

Ali Glisson of Strategic Property Partners said the old Channelside Bay Plaza was doomed from the start.

“It had an unfortunate opening time just after Sept. 11 in the middle of a recession,” she said.

Strategic Property Partners intends to reinvigorate the property located next to the Florida Aquarium.

The project is part of the ambitious $3 billion Water Street Tampa development masterminded by Tampa Bay Lightning owner and Strategic Property Partners founder Jeff Vinik.

The 3.5 million-square-foot project bounded by Channelside Drive, East Cumberland Avenue, South Meridian Avenue and South Morgan Street includes a 26-story JW Marriott hotel, a 173-room Marriott Edition hoteltwo 20-story condominium towers, three apartment buildings, three office buildings, a new medical building for the University of South Florida College of Medicine along with restaurants and shops.

The project also includes the renovation of the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina.

The 3.5 million-square-foot Water Street Tampa project is expected to be completed between summer 2020 and late 2021.

As part of the Water Street project, the old Channelside Bay Plaza will be transformed into a mixed-use retail center redesigned with an industrial look and a focus on Garrison Channel, which runs beside it.

“We really reimagined the space,” said Glisson. “We've opened it up to the water and we're going to provide a really dynamic park like environment.”

The centerpiece of the project will be a 1-acre outdoor space overlooking the channel for events and concerts, an outdoor dining garden with 10 experimental culinary restaurants housed in upcycled shipping containers, and the Fermented Reality Biergarten featuring a 3,000-square-foot covered bar with 30 taps serving craft beers, outdoor televisions and a cooling mister system.

The existing movie theaters at Channelside Bay Plaza will be transformed into 180,000 square feet of office lofts overlooking the water ideal for incubator businesses.

Additionally, Sparkman Wharf will have 65,000 square feet of retail space.

Sparkman Wharf, named for Stephen M. Sparkman, Tampa's first congressman who appropriated the federal funds to dredge Garrison Channel and the Port of Tampa in 1905, is expected to open in October.

Images via Strategic Property Partners

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