Look inside Cora, Water Street Tampa’s new apartment tower, now pre-leasing

Another high-rise tower is preparing to welcome new residents to downtown Tampa.

Cora, the second residential building to open in the Water Street Tampa development, announced that it began pre-leasing apartments on Wednesday and will be move-in ready by September.

The 23-story tower at 1011 E Cumberland Ave. has 338 units ranging in price from $1,650 per month for a one-bedroom, 451-square-foot studio; to $5,185 for a 1,534-square-foot unit with three bedrooms and three bathrooms.

At around the $3.50-per-square-foot range, those prices are far above the average rate of $1.41 per square foot across Tampa Bay, which in 2021 has seen the highest growth rate in asking rents of any metro area in the country. But they’re in line with other downtown properties, including Heron, Water Street’s first residential complex, which started moving in residents this spring, and is currently 83 percent leased.

“It’s high if you’re looking at it compared to all of the inventory,” said Brian Alford, Florida’s director of market analytics for CoStar Group, a nationwide real estate data firm. “But if you’re looking at it compared to the deliveries we’ve seen, which has been a ton, in downtown Tampa the last few years, it’s pretty in line with most of those.”

Newer amenities like parks, office buildings and more development on the horizon has kept downtown Tampa’s rental prices high even despite the pandemic.

“Especially around Channelside and Water Street, downtown has really been the nexus of a lot of activity that’s been going on, and it’s really pushed a lot of the rents,” Alford said. “A lot of the brands have to have pretty high rents to justify the construction costs of the last four or five years.”

A statement from developer Strategic Property Partners about the Cora touted the building’s “curvaceous” architecture, “showcasing signature curves and soft edges that mimic shapes created by water and are reminiscent of ships, offering a nod to Tampa’s history as a port and shipping center.”

Cora’s amenities will include a library, fitness center, indoor and outdoor terraces, communal and outdoor kitchens and a “swim spa.” It will have a 24-hour concierge and recycling room on every floor, and 13,000 square feet of retail space on the ground.

Residents and visitors may learn a new word from Cora: Woonerf, a Dutch term meaning “residential yard” that describes an outdoor space designed for social living. Located outside the front lobby, Cora’s woonerf is “designed to create a shared space where pedestrians, cyclists and drivers co-exist in a curbless environment,” reads the Strategic Property Partners statement.

“The building brings a unique art deco and modernist influence reminiscent of the architectural history of Florida and its nautical roots,” Lee Schaffler, Strategic Property Partners’s chief portfolio officer, said in a statement.

The $3.5 billion Water Street Development is led by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Cascade Investment, owned by Bill Gates. Vinik is a partner in an investment group that has loaned $15 million to the Times Publishing Co., owner of the Tampa Bay Times.