Famous hotelier Ian Schrager gives Tampa the stamp of approval

Ian Schrager says Tampa is having a moment.

The man behind New York's Studio 54 and the boutique hotel boom of the 1980s admits he's only visited three or four times, but tells Axios that Tampa is on the edge of greatness.

• "I believe it's Tampa's time now. It's been coming for a while now, and I think Tampa's a great city," he said.

Why it matters: He's bringing his creative vision to the upscale Tampa EDITION hotel that's part of the Water Street Tampa shebang, along with 37 private residences starting at $2 million apiece on the upper floors.

• The hotel is set to open next year, with 172 guest rooms and suites.
• The Tampa location is only the third EDITION Residences in the world.

State of play: Schrager is sold on Water Street Tampa, the massive Jeff Vinik-backed project that nearly doubles the footprint of downtown Tampa.

• "It's such a big scale, it's gonna change the city," Schrager told Axios, "and it's kind of intoxicating for me to be involved with a project like that."

The Residences, set to open this year and designed to focus on wellness, occupy floors above the hotel and feature wraparound terraces, indoor-outdoor living, soaring windows, and "a new kind of highly intuitive luxury," as the website for the Residences puts it.

• "What we're doing down there with the apartments is very, very sophisticated," Schrager said.

The intrigue: He wants your heart beating faster when you walk in.

"I hope you feel the electricity in the air," he said. "You can feel that you're in someplace special. This is something that you've never seen before. It's not cookie-cutter. You can feel that every detail has been considered and is part of the whole."