![Strategic Property Partners announced the name of its new development: Water Street Tampa. This rendering shows the Tampa skyline with SPP's future buildings in place. [Photos courtesy of SPP]](http://www.tampabay.com/storyimage/HI/20170627/ARTICLE/306279472/AR/0/AR-306279472.jpg)
By Justine Griffin
TAMPA — For years, Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and the real estate executives he employs have been dreaming how to transform 53 acres of downtown Tampa into a major hub of living, working and entertaining in the city’s core.
And for more than two years, they’ve been designing that new neighborhood without a name.
Today, Strategic Property Partners, the real estate firm backed by Vinik and Cascade Investment, is unveiling an official name for the highly anticipated $3 billion revitalization project.
It’s Water Street Tampa.
“The goal of the project is to be grounded in what makes Tampa, Tampa,” said James Nozar, CEO of SPP, in an interview on Monday. “We’ve been dealing with pretty much a clean slate, with surface parking lots that don’t have a lot of history. One of the key attributes that we picked up was Water Street, which has always been part of downtown, even though it’s changed names over the years.”
Read more here.