The storefronts in Water Street's first phase are filling up
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 20, 2022

Behind the vinyl wraps on Water Street Tampa's storefronts, the district's street-level experience is taking shape — and nearly every retail space is an active construction zone.

Lee Schaffler, chief portfolio officer at Strategic Property Partners, said the district’s remaining retail availabilities are on the ground floor of apartment Asher — and even that space may not be available for long. SPP is in late-stage negotiations for a 6,000-square-foot space in the building and in early conversations for an 8,500-square-foot space that opens onto the building’s eponymous signature boulevard.

SPP is controlled by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Cascade Investment LLC, the investment fund controlled by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Street-level retail and restaurants have been a focus for SPP since Water Street’s earliest days. The developer’s goal is to create a walkable district where the pedestrian experience is front and center — no small task in one of the most car-dependent metros in the U.S.

For the district’s first phase of retail, Schaffler said SPP has focused on tenants who will serve those living and working in Water Street — restaurants and service-oriented tenants like Synovus, which will have a bank branch on the ground floor of Asher. Food is a major focus; the majority of storefronts are leased to food and beverage concepts, and Publix GreenWise Market is open on the street level of apartment tower Heron.

“We wanted to create that sense of place — as you know, there wasn’t one here,” Schaffler said of phase one. “That’s important for the constituents — you need a place to eat lunch if you’re an office tenant or a place to grab dinner if you live in one of the units. But we’d like to have some more soft goods and hard goods, and we’ve been having conversations with some of those tenants now.”