The most important thing Jeff Vinik said today
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 17, 2014

With much fanfare, Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik on Wednesday unveiled renderings of a new mixed-use district - a dazzling billion-dollar development plan for downtown Tampa.

The plans call for nearly 3 million square feet of new commercial development projected to generate $35 million in annual tax revenue. There's space for a corporate headquarters, which Vinik's real estate team, Mayor Bob Buckhorn and state economic development leaders plan to pursue aggressively in 2015.

There's a strong community element, with parks, an accessible public waterfront and street-level cafes and storefronts, all meant to make the district a central gathering spot for Tampa.

Vinik and his team have the backing to get it done.

On Wednesday, Vinik said he has been in talks with Microsoft founder Bill Gates' Cascade Investment LLC for about two years, and that Cascade has been on board "since day one and a half." "It's a great situation because we do have the financing to complete this project," Vinik said.

That may have been the singular most important statement to come out of the press event, which lasted more than an hour and included appearances from each of Vinik's real estate executives, his urban planning consultant and Gray Swoope, CEO of Enterprise Florida, the state's economic development organization. "It's not just lip service," Buckhorn said. "It's real."

A partnership between Vinik and Cascade represents pockets deep enough to pull the deal off, regardless of what may happen in the real estate cycle. Unlike a traditional developer, Vinik and Cascade are not dependent on the capital markets to move forward with their project. Vinik told reporters after the event that he and Cascade are looking for "reasonable returns," though he declined to quantify that statement.

"Neither this nor the hockey team are some venture to have huge returns," he said. "This is to have a sustainable business development, and if it doesn't have reasonable returns, it won't be here for 20, 30, 50, 100 years to come, so it needs to be sustainable financially."

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.