Vinik's plans include more than $1 billion in construction

TAMPA Jeff Vinik isnt just developing some new buildings in the Channel District. Hes remaking an entire area of downtown into a new neighborhood, and nearly building a second skyline for Tampas urban identity.

Unveiling a master plan Wednesday, Vinik said he looked around the area after buying the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team five years ago, and saw massive untapped potential. Now his development team is ready to start making his dreams into a reality.

Largely funded privately, the project includes nearly a dozen new buildings, including hotels, office buildings, apartment towers, restaurants, medical school facilities, retail promenades, parks and entertainment venues, with a budget topping $1 billion. In all, the project could remake 40 contiguous acres along the waterfront and rank as one of the largest downtown development projects underway in the Southeast, letting Tampa join ranks of other U.S. cities seeing a resurgence of urban spaces.

We have a blank canvas to develop an entire district to help revitalize downtown and change this area for generations to come, Vinik told several hundred people gathered at the Marriott Waterside hotel for the revealing ceremony. Its critical we create a unified district, and its critical that this district have a soul and a brand.

Viniks team has already begun a nation-wide tour to recruit a major Fortune 500 firm to the area and he said they have several very interested candidates. If successful, they will move forward on office construction and the overall project could add 6,700 direct and indirect jobs to the area with an average wage of $78,000.

Some construction work can begin right away, as Vinik already owns or controls the bulk of the land in the area, and has the strong endorsement of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn. By summer, he hopes to have begun dirt moving to re-arrange some dormant streets in the area, and by this time next year he hopes people see a crane building a new medical school campus for the University of South Florida.

After the big ceremony, Buckhorn pulled Vinik aside to hand him a small, white card with a quote from Winston Churchill: We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.

Ive kept that on my desk since the day I took office, Buckhorn told Vinik. Now you keep that on your desk.

Anticipation has been building for months about Viniks plans downtown.

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Vinik's plans include more than $1 billion in construction