WFLA-TV's studio sits between a portion of the site and Arabelle Riverwalk, an apartment community that Related built on the former headquarters of the now-defunct Tampa Tribune.

Related, whose executive team has declared Tampa Bay the developer's second biggest market outside of Miami, has a mixed-use vision for the site: 1,079 residential units with 32,760 square feet of retail space. The project will also include 10 boat slips. A construction timeline was not disclosed.

Plans for the site — including a mix of luxury market-rate apartments, for-sale condominiums and student housing — require administrative approval from the city and are not subject to a public hearing before Tampa City Council.

“Tampa’s Riverwalk is an iconic feature of our growing city, and we are thrilled to see Related’s plans to develop a Riverwalk district that will enhance it," Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said in a statement. "It’s particularly great to see a thoughtful, mixed-use project that includes smaller, more affordable apartments along with the luxury offerings.”

Related also plans to honor an agreement with the city under the current entitlements for the site, under which the developer will spend $8 million on expanding and enhancing the West Riverwalk. The acquisition comes as the expansion of the West Riverwalk takes a key step forward: On Thursday, Tampa City Council executed an agreement to accept $24 million in federal funding to extend and connect the West Riverwalk to the north. Related's new project, combined with Arabelle, could become a southern anchor for the West Riverwalk.

The seller, Hillsborough River Realty Corp., began assembling the site in 1984, according to county property records. In 2016, the company proposed a mixed-use project on the property to be called Lafayette Place, though the plans never came to fruition.

Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, now a principal with Shumaker Advisors Florida focused on economic development, said he's been waiting for the property's development since Hillsborough River Realty first purchased it.

"I think it puts an exclamation point on the trajectory of Tampa over the last seven years," Buckhorn said. "This is what I used to wake up every day and hope for."

Related entered the Tampa Bay market in the early 2010s with the development of Pierhouse in downtown Tampa's Channel district. The developer has set several records in the market; the apartments that sit on the former Tribune site were the first in the Tampa Bay area to sell for more than $500,000 per unit.

Its sale of Icon Central in downtown St. Petersburg also set a record when it sold in late 2021. Related also brought the Ritz-Carlton flag to Tampa Bay for the first time with the branded condominiums it is building on Bayshore Boulevard.

Related's portfolio in the Tampa Bay area isn't limited to luxury housing. It is also the master developer of the West River redevelopment project, which includes affordable, workforce and market-rate residential units as well as a Publix Super Markets Inc. store. It is also the master developer of Rome Yard, a city-owned property where Related plans a mixed-use project with mixed-income housing.

Buckhorn compared Related's investment in the city to Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who bought the hockey team in 2010 and went on to invest billions in commercial real estate. Related is a household name in commercial real estate circles; founder Jorge Perez, an art collector who opened the Perez Art Museum in Miami in 2013 and donated another $15 million to the museum in 2016, is known as Miami's condo king.