If you're a fan of tall, shiny buildings like the one rendered above and you live in Tampa, you are in luck today, probably.
That's because Port Tampa Bay has just announced its "vision plan" for a huge redevelopment project, gleaming towers and all, in an area adjacent to Lightning owner Jeff Vinik's billion-dollar currently underway redevelopment of a large swath of land near the Amalie Arena, which is slated to include USF's Morsani College of Medicine.
The two projects are not directly related, but officials say they will complement one another.
The Port will redevelop 45 acres of land it owns north of the Florida Aquarium along Channelside Drive and the Ybor Channel; a grand total of nine million square feet at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion. The port expects most of that to be funded through private developers, while the port, the city and the Channelside Redevelopment Agency will cover upgrades to infrastructure and other public amenities.
Port officials hope the project, still in its preliminary planning stage, will be a "bold mix of private development and public amenities," including "residential, retail, office and hotel space to a central park, marina and multipurpose cruise ship terminal," the Port said in a press release. Two 75-story towers are also planned that could "be among the tallest and most notable on Florida's west coast."
Like the Vinik project, it will be a mixed use development, with residential, retail and park space, but it's expected to cost about half-a-billion more.
The Tampa Bay Business Journal's Ashley Gurbal Kritzer writes that there's not much certainty in the plan, and the degree to which it comes to fruition depends on downtown Tampa's real estate market.
"The potential, if this comes to fruition, could be really exciting for the port and for the Channel District and also will help to connect Ybor City to downtown in pretty significant ways," Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn told the Tampa Bay Times ahead of the event.
Check out all the renderings of the project here.
