The JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts luxury brand is coming to Tampa, where Strategic Property Partners is embarking on a game-changing mixed-use waterfront neighbourhood that will redefine the city skyline. The 26-storey hotel will boast 519 rooms mere steps from the Tampa Convention Center and Amalie Arena, home of the NHL's Tampa Bay Lighting. It forms just a small part of the massive $3 billion Water Street Tampa neighbourhood, which includes a number of developments by internationally recognized architects.

JW Marriott Tampa and Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina, image via Water Street Tampa

Strategic Property Partners also announced renovations are underway at the adjacent 717-room Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina, which was built in 2000 and acquired by the development firm in 2014. The renovations will redesign the interior, add retail and another ten rooms to the complex, and feature over 50,000 square feet of meeting and event space. All improvements to the hotel are expected to be complete by early 2019.

The waterfront development will remake prime downtown property, image via Water Street Tampa

Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates designed the newly unveiled JW Marriott Tampa, which will include restaurant and retail space, a sixth floor amenities suite, and a view-laden terrace hosting the highest rooftop bar in Tampa Bay. Construction on the hotel is expected to start in early 2018.

"We are incredibly excited to extend our partnership with Marriott International, bring the JW Marriott brand to Water Street Tampa and significantly enhance the hospitality offerings in downtown Tampa," said SPP CEO, James Nozar. "Not only are we bringing a new luxury hotel to the neighbourhood, we are also reinvesting in the Marriott Waterside Tampa to create a one-of-a-kind hospitality experience for everyone to enjoy, with dynamic outdoor amenities seamlessly connected to the Tampa Riverwalk and adjacent marina."

JW Marriott Tampa atrium, image via Water Street Tampa

The two hotels will create the largest collection of hotel rooms and meeting space in the Tampa Bay region, totalling 1,246 rooms and 150,000 square feet of meeting and event space. The two hotels are elements of one of the country's largest coordinated urban mixed-use real estate developments, which promises to mix and mingle nine million square feet of commercial, residential, hospitality, educational, entertainment, cultural and retail space.

Water Street Tampa will engage ten architectural firms on the design of 18 buildings and 12.9 acres of new and enhanced public space, to be fully completed by 2027. Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, CookFox Architects, Gensler, Morris Adjmi Architects and Pickard Chilton are just some of the architects tapped to design components of the expansive scheme.

Kohn Pedersen Fox's 815 Water Street, image via Water Street Tampa

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