Inside Water Street, Tampa's Central Wellness District
Inside Water Street, Tampa's Central Wellness District
Broad sidewalks and buzzy restaurants are among the features reshaping a slice of downtown Tampa
A new neighborhood is breathing life into downtown Tampa, and it's centered around health and well-being. What was once a sprawling, mostly vacant spread of parking lots and underutilized space has been transformed into Water Street Tampa, a "fifteen-minute city" developed with the intention to situate daily amenities—grocery stores, fitness centers, restaurants, medical care, workplaces—within a fifteen-minute walk or bike ride of residents.
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The design of Water Street, which completed its first phase in late 2022 and continues to expand its footprint, focuses as much on the space between buildings as the buildings themselves. Generous, continuous sidewalks (some as wide as forty-five feet), tree-lined streets, bike lanes, and public spaces connect the neighborhood to Tampa's downtown business district, nearby greenspaces, and the waterfront. The result has garnered recognition from the United States Green Building Council and the International WELL Building Institute. (Water Street is the first neighborhood in North America to receive the gold level of the WELL Community Certification.)