Water Street Tampa’s Edition hotel, restaurants opening next week
Tampa’s splashiest hotel in recent memory is only days away.
The Tampa Edition hotel, a property that’s setting out to stake its claim as the region’s first five-star hotel, will have a soft opening next week, developers announced Tuesday. A grand opening will take place in October, but guests will be able to reserve rooms and restaurant tables starting Sept. 20.
The 26-story, 172-room Marriott hotel, created in partnership with New York hospitality veteran Ian Schrager, sits at 500 Channelside Drive in Water Street Tampa, the $3.5 billion downtown development from Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment.
“Not often have I had the opportunity to work on a project that will completely transform the very center and heartbeat of a great city like Tampa, and make it even greater,” Schrager, a cofounder of New York’s legendary Studio 54, said in a statement. “I call it urban expansion, rather than urban renewal, and it serves as a model for how cities will transform and evolve the future. The scale of it is mind-boggling and we’re very happy to be right here and a part of it.”
Schrager’s team also unveiled details about its culinary program, led by Michelin-starred chef John Fraser. The New York chef will lead five restaurants at the Tampa Edition: Lilac, a Greek-Mediterranean restaurant; Market at Edition, an indoor-outdoor Italian trattoria; Azure at Edition, a ninth-floor Mediterranean eatery; and two lobby and poolside bars. There’s also an upscale second-floor cocktail bar called Punch Room and a space called Arts Club that will offer drinks, small bites and a small performance space.
“Through great hospitality, architecture, and design, we strive for our guests to feel as if they have arrived at a sanctuary where they never have to leave,” Fraser said in a statement.
Other amenities include a fitness center, spa, event space, meeting rooms and rooftop pool. The building also has 38 luxury residences whose residents can use the facilities.
While Tampa has hotels in the four-star class — including the JW Marriott on the other side of Amalie Arena — the Edition promises a different level of luxury. Tuesday’s announcement touted such features as a “dramatic white marble sculptural staircase” in the lobby and, in the Arts Club, “an organic undulating ceiling of 350 mirrored balls of various sizes and theatrical ruby red velvet drapery.”
“The design is simple and pure,” Schrager said. “There isn’t anything superfluous or gratuitous, nor a wasted gesture.”
While the hotel’s first few nights are sold out, Marriott’s website on Tuesday showed rooms available that weekend starting at more than $600 and running to more than $5,000 per night.
The soft opening Sept. 20 will give Schrager’s team a month or so to work out whatever kinks arise. Some amenities and services may initially be limited; for example, room service will operate on a modified morning schedule.
