The company behind Water Street Tampa, a master-planned development along the city’s downtown waterfront, bought a flour mill just north of the 50-acre development site for $13 million.
A joint venture sold the 80-year-old ConAgra flour mill to Strategic Property Partners (SSP), formed by Jeff Vinik, owner of the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning, and Cascade Investment, owned by Bill Gates, the billionaire who co-founded Microsoft Corp.
The seller of the flour mill and its three-acre site was Ardent Mills, a joint venture between ConAgra and two other agribusiness companies.
In connection with its acquisition of the flour mill, SPP announced that Tampa’s municipal government agreed to pay Ardent Mills $2.25 million to terminate its leasing rights to railroad tracks south of Cumberland Avenue.
That deal will permit an extension of Cumberland Avenue across the tracks to South Meridian Avenue, providing an east-west route through Water Street Tampa and a point of entry to the master-planned development. [Tampa Bay Times] – Mike Seemuth