Entertainment venue and new towers coming to Water Street Tampa

Water Street Tampa, the major mixed-use development just outside the city’s downtown, is expanding.

Strategic Property Partners announced three new projects Monday: a new office building, residential tower and entertainment venue.

SPP did not divulge details about the projects, telling reporters at the company’s Sparkman Wharf headquarters Monday afternoon that it was too soon to know what the various pieces are going to look like or when construction will begin.

One of the main reasons for that is as the project begins a new phase, the infrastructure must first be built out. Once that is complete sometime next year, SPP will have a better idea of what the construction timetables will be and a better sense of what the finished products will look like.

Generally speaking, the company says, construction takes about three years to complete.

Chief among the unknowns is the office tower.

The plan is for the office tower to be built-to-suit for a company relocating to the area. This means construction wouldn’t begin until a company agrees to move, gives its specifications and a contract is signed.

And that could be awhile.

SPP’s CEO Josh Taube, who says in the statement announcing the expansion plans, that it intends “to vigorously pursue corporate relocations to this site” and then added at the afternoon briefing that no active talks are in the works at this time.

“We've been working very diligently on plans for new phases. This takes a long time,” says Taube.

“We wanted to just capture the momentum and really use this as an opportunity to talk to the world, to talk to tenants and create demand for what has been a lot of successes.”

As for the entertainment area, it will feature a hotel, an event parking garage and a "variety of entertainment-oriented uses." It will be just north of the Amalie Arena between Morgan Street and Jefferson Street.

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The condo and office buildings will be built on an extension of Water Street that’s under construction north of the 900 and 1000 blocks of Cumberland Avenue. The extension is expected to be complete early next year.

Taube says in the statement announcing the expansion that the company plans “to vigorously pursue corporate relocations to this site” and that it will work with local and state government to capitalize on companies moving to Florida.

Water Street is a $3 billion, 56-acre, mixed-use development just south of downtown Tampa. The 9 million-square foot district includes commercial, residential, hospitality, entertainment and retail space.