The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority is dangling nearly three acres of downtown land for redevelopment, and it is willing to pack up its own headquarters to make it happen. Three development firms are now competing for the chance to build on one or both of two THEA-owned parcels near Water Street Tampa, with the agency's board voting Monday to narrow the field to Strategic Property Partners, Hines and Gotham.
The two sites together total about 2.83 acres, according to tampabaydev.com, which reported that THEA issued RFQ E-0326 on June 25 covering the 1.41-acre Meridian Site and the roughly 1.42-acre THEA Office Site. The Meridian Site sits beside current and future phases of Water Street Tampa at South Meridian Avenue, East Whiting Street and North Brush Street, while the Office Site at 1104 East Twiggs Street holds the authority's own 27,727-square-foot headquarters and Traffic Management Center. Tampa Bay Business and Wealth reports the headquarters site sits near Channelside and Tampa Union Station, placing it squarely in one of downtown's most active redevelopment corridors.
Developers Can Bid on One Site or Both
THEA has structured the process so that Strategic Property Partners, Hines and Gotham can each propose building on either parcel individually or on both together, per the same tampabaydev.com reporting. The agency says it will also consider either an outright sale or a long-term ground lease, meaning it could retain ownership of the land even if a private developer builds on it. THEA's procurement page lists a Notice of Shortlist for the E-0326 opportunity dated Monday, confirming the field has formally narrowed to the three firms.
Whatever gets built will have to answer to a fairly open zoning code. The Meridian Site is zoned CBD-2, which carries no formal height or floor-area-ratio cap, though the same report notes that 10% of the site must remain open space. Strategic Property Partners has already shown appetite for big swings nearby, having filed plans in July for a 33-story residential tower of roughly 400 feet at Water Street and Cumberland Avenue, according to the report.
Why THEA Is Willing to Move Its Own Headquarters
Giving up its own office space is no small ask for a public agency that has to keep the lights on. Redevelopment of the Office Site would require about 20,000 square feet of replacement space, including a boardroom and a Traffic Management Center control room, and THEA has to continue operating without interruption throughout any move, the outlet reported.
The Meridian Site comes with its own complication: it currently functions as a stormwater pond. That drainage role is set to move underground as part of the Whiting Extension project, at THEA's own cost, freeing up the land beside Water Street for private development, per the same tampabaydev.com report. The Whiting Street project itself would extend the street between Meridian Avenue and Brush Street, where it currently ends, according to the Whiting Street PD&E Study.
A Road Project Decades in the Making
City of Tampa planners and THEA have already settled on a preferred alternative that extends Whiting Street to Meridian Avenue, according to Kisinger Campo, which notes the design includes a two-way cycle track separated by a raised buffer and 10-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides of the roadway, with connections to the Selmon Greenway and Meridian Greenway Trail network. THEA has said the extension is meant to improve east-west connectivity by linking streets that are currently cut off, giving drivers, pedestrians and cyclists more options for getting around downtown, according to planning materials posted on the Whiting Street PD&E Study site.
Construction on the broader Whiting Street overhaul is planned to begin in fall 2028, extending the street to connect the Channel District with the central business district, the Business Observer reported. The agency's work program also includes a $2.7 million Meridian Avenue Refresh planned for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, which is expected to include a Meridian Health Trail, according to tampabaydev.com's reporting.
Timeline and What Happens Next
THEA's board is scheduled to approve a final ranking and award on January 25, 2027, under the revised RFQ schedule reported by tampabaydev.com. The agency has not approved any development plan or land deal at this point; Monday's board action only narrowed the competing field to three firms.
Elsewhere along Meridian Avenue, construction is already underway on the unrelated AC Moxy Hotel project at 111 N. Meridian Avenue, a 13-story dual-branded development that broke ground in spring 2026 and is slated to open in early 2028, according to THEA's own project update page. That project is separate from THEA's RFQ for its own land, but it underscores how much new development is converging on the same stretch of downtown as the agency weighs what becomes of its headquarters and the stormwater site next door.
