He may be the best thing to happen to Tampa since Henry Plant. He has the three requisites: money, vision and commitment. He is Jeff Vinik, Tampa’s favorite hedge-fund manager, who has now relocated with his wife from Boston to Tampa.
Vinik is the guy who bought the Tampa Bay Lightning and saved us all from the “cowboy” ownership. He is also the guy who pumped $40 million of his own money into renovating the Times Forum, a building he only leases. Recall that the facility played better nationally than the GOP Convention. And this is a guy whose organization gives away $50,000 (“Community Hero” program) to a designated charity before every scheduled (41) home game–and will do so again this season despite the lockout. A commitment is a commitment.
But even more importantly, this is the guy who owns or partly owns serious acreage in Channelside and is negotiating to buy the Channelside Bay Plaza entertainment complex. And, yes, this is the guy who has given every indication he wants to reshape a major chunk of downtown. And potential scenarios are as eclectic as they are exciting.
Two things are more than manifest. Parts of downtown, veritable homages to surface parking lots, are ripe for reshaping. Under-utilized real estate, a certain flour mill, and untapped potential reign. There is tangible momentum downtown. Second, timing is, of course, everything. Nobody knows that better than a pro-active mayor and a deep-pocketed, visionary investor with the ultimate vested interest: He lives here too.