Nearly done with $50M renovation, Tampa Marriott Waterside changes name, debuts new restaurants
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 9, 2018

Water Street Tampa is still in its infancy - the JW Marriott is well underway, as are the residential towers at 815 Water Street, with six buildings to begin construction this year - but the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina is already giving locals and tourists a preview of what's to come in the $3 billion mixed-use district.

The hotel is nearing the end of a $50 million renovation project that has included everything from room remodels to a roof upgrade to new eating options, from a Starbucks to new gastropub Garrison Tavern. The Garrison Tavern has replaced the former Champion's Grill and added a front patio to the property. It opened quietly the first week of April; Marriott held a media tour of the renovation progress on Tuesday.

The long-promised opening of the hotel's back patio to the Tampa Riverwalk is under construction now, slated to wrap up in mid-July and bring 200 outside seats to the back of the hotel. The inside hotel bar that serves the patio will also include a raw bar when the patio opens up. When that opens, the longtime Waterside Grill in the hotel will transition to a breakfast restaurant, and the new restaurant - with the name to be announced - will serve lunch and dinner.

The hotel has also changed its name: As of early April, the property is now known as Tampa Marriott Water Street. The three hotels in Water Street all bear a Marriott flag (there's also a five-star Edition in the works), and it was time to rebrand the city's convention hotel part of the upcoming urban district, said Ron McAnaugh, general manager.

Marriott Water Street has been an anchor of Water Street since long before the district had a name - or even its final master plan in place. Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who is partnered with Cascade Investment LLC on the development of Water Street, bought the hotel in 2014, before revealing Cascade was his partner or even a preliminary vision for the district.

Now, the hotel is starting to preview its forthcoming surroundings. The renovations, McAnaugh says, are about 85 percent complete.

The Garrison Tavern has a patio; a patio entrance to Starbucks, off of Old Water Street, is under construction. The sidewalks in front of the hotel are being expanded from 8 to 16 feet wide, McAnaugh said, which is the new standard for Water Street, a place where the street-level pedestrian experience is a top priority. As sidewalks are expanded, car lanes are shrinking - key to slowing traffic and making Tampa's car-centric urban core a more comfortable place for pedestrians.

By opening up to the surrounding neighborhood, the hotel is also moving past a staid image of convention ballrooms and tourist-centric offerings to become the kind of place that locals want to visit, too. The newly opened Garrison Tavern, for example, boasts its own craft beer, developed with Tampa craft brewer Coppertail Brewing Co. Its menu is elevated sports food - for example, the burger (7-ounce, $14) features local beef, triple-ground in the hotel's new in-house butcher shop. (The former Il Terrazzo restaurant space was converted to the butcher shop.) There's also an ahi tuna poke salad ($16) and pork carnitas poutine ($10).

It has about 200 seats, the same number as the former Champion's Grill, and served 1,100 people on Friday night, McAnaugh said, which is also on par with the previous restaurant.

But Champion's Grill didn't include two TopGolf virtual sports bays that can be rented out by the hour or reserved. The games include everything from dodgeball to baseball as well as golf, and McAnaugh says they're already a hit.

The restaurants were developed in partnership with restaurateur Richard Sandoval's RS Hospitality, which collaborates with luxury hospitality companies around the globe. Some of Sandoval's concepts can be found in Four Seasons, St. Regis and Fairmont properties.

The renovated and renamed Marriott, combined with the forthcoming JW and Edition, speak to what Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson told the Tampa Bay Business Journal the hospitality company is focused on for the future: Building "authentic experiences" that can lure in business in the age of the Instagram traveler.