Smart Living

Water Street Tampa, the 56-acre transformational mixed-use development in Downtown Tampa from Tampa-based real estate development firm Strategic Property Partners, LLC (“SPP”), has become the first neighbourhood in the world to achieve WiredScore’s SmartScore Neighbourhood Pre-Certification.

Known for setting new standards for innovation, Water Street Tampa is also the world’s first WELL Pre-certified Community and was recently named as one of Time’s “World’s Greatest Places” for 2023. SPP partnered with WiredScore, the organisation behind the internationally recognised smart building rating systems, to pilot the new community-wide certification that sets a new global standard for technology in the built environment on a neighbourhood level.

“Technology innovation has been a core pillar of the Water Street Tampa vision from the very beginning,” said Johan Koch, Senior Vice President for SPP. “At a time when many real estate owners and developers are grappling with how to bring their technology infrastructure up to today’s standards, our focus is and always has been on the future. We invested in an unprecedented tech-enabled infrastructure that allows us to evolve with the ever-changing technology environment to better serve the people who experience our neighbourhood now and in the future.”

SmartScore recognises neighbourhoods that have developed technologically advanced district-wide infrastructure ensuring strong, foundational, digital connectivity that enables a community to adapt to future technologies. WiredScore evaluated Water Street Tampa on everything from its digital infrastructure to its neighbourhood programming.

“Technology is and will continue to shape and enhance our daily lives, and we therefore have a duty to empower the individuals responsible for buildings to implement tech in such a way that it will have a lasting impact,” said Arie Barendrecht, Founder and CEO, WiredScore. “In achieving the world’s first-ever SmartScore Neighbourhood Pre-Certification, SPP is demonstrating excellence across the board in delivering first-class digital infrastructure that can support the evolving needs of the communities living and working at Water Street Tampa.”

ReliaQuest, a leading global cybersecurity firm, chose to relocate its headquarters to Water Street Tampa for the holistic neighbourhood experience and world-class technology infrastructure that allows the company to achieve its core business goals and seamlessly adapt to changes in the tech landscape.

“Fast-growing technology companies must keep pace with rapidly changing markets, and in cybersecurity those markets change even more quickly,” said Brian Murphy, ReliaQuest founder and CEO. “Collaboration and innovation require a great environment, and Water Street Tampa has made the right investments to support that environment. We are proud to be headquartered here and look forward to watching the neighbourhood continue to grow.”

SPP built tech-enabled infrastructure into the very fabric of Water Street Tampa from the initial vision and master plan, creating an extraordinary foundation that far surpasses that of traditional master-planned communities. Further, it created a “technology sandbox” that provides a supervised and controlled ecosystem for technology companies to innovate and rapidly deploy their technology within to help improve the overall experience of the built environment, remove friction and optimize operations.

Examples of Water Street Tampa’s future-thinking technology foundation can be found in its physical design as well as in the invisible infrastructure that seamlessly connects the community. Running underneath the neighbourhood is the communication corridor, which houses 16 conduits below ground and connects all of the buildings as well as 180 smart light poles. The entire neighbourhood is connected by a single secure wireless network, allowing anyone in Water Street Tampa to carry their individual network with them throughout all buildings and public spaces. This foundational infrastructure is supporting forthcoming technology like smart kiosks, a district app, and pilot programs, in addition to supporting current technologies like electric charging stations, management of the centralized district cooling system, utility systems, sensors, security and more.

As part of its commitment to innovation, SPP’s master planning, leasing and sales efforts also utilise cutting-edge technology. SPP developed a fully immersive mixed-reality “digital twin” environment to showcase its vision for the development and plan for the future. The Water Street Tampa Digital Twin features an interactive 17-foot scale model of downtown Tampa that spans 1.7 miles in radius, includes nearly 1,500 buildings, and uses an advanced projection mapping system to offer real-time data visualizations from market to building information and can even track down to how sunlight moves throughout the buildings in the neighbourhood.

SmartScore Neighbourhood Pre-Certification recognises the neighbourhood’s digital connectivity that adapts to meet the evolving expectations of residents and the workforce. In addition to recognising its pioneering approach to neighbourhood-wide connectivity, Water Street Tampa was also commended for its expandable digital connectivity, air quality monitoring, protection of critical systems, indoor and outdoor mobile coverage, and neighbourhood power resiliency. As companies are reassessing their values in the modern workplace, the strong connectivity and latest technologies implemented in the fabric of Water Street Tampa are a must-have for tenants. Being a SmartScore Pre-Certified Neighbourhood ensures tenants and residents that their neighbourhood is resilient, sustainable, future-ready and operationally effective.

www.waterstreettampa.com