Water Street Tampa Unveils Innovative Cooling Facility

TAMPA, FL — Tampa-based real estate developer Strategic Property Partners LLC celebrated the official opening of the innovative district cooling facility at Water Street Tampa Wednesday.

SPP hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp to commemorate one of the first buildings to open inside the massive Water Street Tampa redevelopment project.

The completion of the cooling plant, which will produce and distribute chilled water to air condition the majority of the buildings in the neighborhood, signifies a major milestone for the 56-acre master planned community in the heart of Downtown Tampa.

“Today’s ribbon-cutting ceremony is another symbol of the monumental progress of the Water Street Tampa neighborhood,” said James Nozar, CEO of SPP. “We are proud to open this inventive district cooling facility that is providing an efficient, centralized utility solution to the neighborhood. The facility is also making our neighborhood infrastructure more resilient and fulfilling our commitment to promoting sustainability and wellness through the built environment.”

Supporting SPP’s desire to provide more publicly accessible open space throughout the neighborhood, the centralized cooling plant reduces redundant mechanical systems and energy consumption, making it 30 to 40 percent more efficient than traditional individual building chiller systems.

The district cooling plant also frees rooftops that would typically include cooling towers to use as shared amenity spaces.

As the first anticipated WELL-certified neighborhood in the world, the new district cooling plant contributes to the WELL Community Standard requirements by creating resilient neighborhood infrastructure and reducing noise levels throughout the community.

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Located on the corner of East Cumberland Avenue and South Nebraska Avenue, the district cooling facility will initially serve nine buildings throughout Water Street Tampa, including the new USF Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute, which officially opened its doors to more than 2,000 students, faculty and researchers last week.

With 8,500 linear feet of underground insulated steel piping infrastructure, the plant centralizes noise pollution to one concentrated building and reduces sound interruptions district wide while supplying chilled water to the development. The plant has an initial capacity of 8,000 tons, but was built with an eye toward future expansion.

“As our city continues to grow, we have to make sure we’re doing so in a thoughtful way. This district cooling facility will play a big role in reducing our energy consumption while we work to create a more sustainable and resilient city,” said Castor. “This is a big step forward in the right direction as we continue transforming Tampa together.”

Designed by Florida-based architect Baker Barrios, the 12,500-square-foot cooling plant was built with concrete masonry units and structural steel, while the façade was artistically designed to celebrate its surroundings, offering a nod to the iconic cigar factories in nearby Ybor City with the use of custom pattern of bricks.

Tampa Bay Trane was responsible for the design, construction and installation of the cooling plant, as well as the installation of the underground chilled water piping system throughout the neighborhood.

Tampa Bay Trane

One of the largest urban real estate developments currently under construction in the United States, Water Street Tampa is creating a new neighborhood that reconnects the city’s central business district with the waterfront and surrounding communities.

Connected by pedestrian-oriented streets and 13 acres of new public spaces, Water Street Tampa encompasses more than nine million square feet of new commercial, residential, hospitality, entertainment, cultural, retail and educational spaces and introduces a walkable lifestyle to Tampa’s urban core.