NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, at the 2015 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, Delos®, the pioneer of Wellness Real Estate™, and Strategic Property Partners announced a partnership to create the world’s first WELL Certified™ city district in Tampa, Florida. Through this project, Delos, Strategic Property Partners and the City of Tampa will not only create a roadmap for how cities worldwide can be designed and developed to support public health, they will also demonstrate the concept on a $2 billion, 40-acre urban mixed-use development project. Delos Founder and CEO Paul Scialla, who was joined on stage by Robbie Fritz of Cascade Investment, Jeff Vinik and Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, announced the partnership as part of Delos and Strategic Property Partners’ CGI commitment to improve the way people live by building healthy communities.
Delos and Strategic Property Partners, a joint venture of Cascade Investment, LLC and Jeff Vinik, will invest more than $20 million specifically for health- and wellness-focused, state-of-the-art technologies and design strategies for the project.
“More than half of all people in the world now live in cities, and we spend 90 percent of our time indoors,” explained Delos Founder Paul Scialla. “The built environment – our cities – are human habitat, and we have the knowledge to design them to sustain our health, not to harm it.”
In 2012, Delos made a Clinton Global Initiative commitment to create a health and wellness standard for buildings. Since announcing the commitment in 2012, Delos has founded the International WELL Building Institute™ and launched the WELL Building Standard® globally, which has already enrolled nearly 20 million square feet of building projects in 12 countries in the program. This new commitment builds on that success and tackles the even greater challenge of creating city-scale developments built for health and wellness, and like the WELL Standard for buildings, will be third-party certified globally by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI).
The Tampa city district will serve as an example to the world that city design can be healthy. Delos will deploy its proven research and development capabilities to identify city-scale development strategies to support public health and wellness. The principles and foundation of the WELL Building Standard - which focuses on seven categories of building performance, including air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind - will be applied to the project. All buildings within the Tampa city district will pursue WELL Certification, including new buildings such as a 400-500 room hotel, a 650,000 square foot signature office tower, the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute, and approximately 200,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space. Additionally, the community itself will become the world’s first WELL Certified city district and will feature design and technology strategies including enhanced walkability, abundant green space including low pollen trees, sound barriers to support acoustic comfort, access to healthy foods, green infrastructure, daily monitoring and reporting of district air quality, and access to the amenities of an urban waterfront – all of which contribute to the wellness and quality of life of the people who live and work in the development.
The Tampa wellness city district project is targeted to break ground in 2016 with phase one to be completed within five years. It is estimated that approximately 7,500 people will directly benefit from the wellness community through living and working environments. Importantly, an additional three million people per year who are users and visitors to the Tampa wellness city district will also be positively affected.
“Cascade is committed to creating a world-class development in Tampa that offers the highest quality of life for its residents and users. Implementing health and wellness features throughout the district will help us achieve that,” said Michael Larson, Chief Investment Officer of Cascade Investment.
Strategic Property Partners’ Jeff Vinik said, “As our development plans continue to take shape, Strategic Property Partners envisions a walkable, 24-7 urban district committed to the true wellbeing of our Tampa guests, students, residents and tenants. We foresee our Tampa urban district setting a new standard for wellness and sustainability.”
Leading research demonstrates not only that where you live can affect your lifespan, but also that how your community is designed can be linked to your health. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that people living in walkable, compact, and connected neighborhoods enjoy better health – including lower rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. The health impacts of the built environment don’t end there. Growing medical evidence links air pollution and heart disease.
By combining smart city technologies and design strategies such as comprehensive air quality monitoring, low-emissions transportation, green infrastructure and walkability, the Tampa wellness city district will show that people have the choice to not only create cities that can thrive in harmony with the natural systems, but also to build communities that proactively eliminate risk factors for chronic disease.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn noted, “Tampa is proud to be the first city in the world to be home to a WELL Certified District and to be the pioneer for this exciting initiative. Together, we will demonstrate that city design – not just building design - can be healthy and sustainable, making Tampa a leader in the wellness industry and our downtown, a destination. We look forward to participating with our partners Delos and SPP to play a role in crafting a WELL Community Standard that will become the basis for similar projects in other cities.”
About Delos:
As the pioneer of Wellness Real Estate™, Delos is transforming our homes, offices, schools, and other indoor environments by placing health and wellness at the center of design and construction decisions. Delos helps create spaces that actively contribute to human health, performance and well-being by marrying the best innovations in technology, health, science, and real estate. The Delos platform includes programming, consulting, research, and an array of innovative, built-in amenities that research suggests may improve occupant well-being. More information on Delos is available at www.delos.com.
About Strategic Property Partners, LLC:
Strategic Property Partners is a real estate development joint venture between Cascade Investment, LLC, and Jeff Vinik. SPP is developing its 40 acres in Tampa’s downtown as an urban multi-use waterfront project which will promote a walkable, sustainable, wifi-connected, and healthy environment for tenants, residents, students, and guests. The project will be the world’s first WELL Certified city district for wellness. SPP currently owns the 719-room Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina as well as Channelside Bay Plaza, both of which are located on the water. While the entire SPP project will be developed over time, a number of projects are planned to start construction: a new 400-500 room hotel, a 650,000 square foot signature office tower, 200,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and entertainment venues, the University Of South Florida Morsani College Of Medicine and Heart Institute, as well as an adjoining office building to house health industry-related businesses. The district is well-located in downtown Tampa surrounded by water on three sides and possesses a number of exciting amenities in close proximity which attract over three million visitors annually: Amalie Arena (home to the Tampa Bay Lightning National Hockey League team and many concerts and other events), Tampa Bay History Center, Tampa Convention Center, Florida Aquarium, and an active passenger cruise terminal. When all three phases of the project are completed, the development will be approximately 6,000,000 square feet of commercial, residential, and retail space with a total investment exceeding $2 billion. For more information about SPP’s vision and our team, please visit spprealestate.com.
About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together 190 sitting and former heads of state, more than 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI community have made more than 3,200 Commitments to Action, which have improved the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries.
In addition to the Annual Meeting, CGI convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United States; and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. This year, CGI also convened CGI Middle East & Africa, which brought together leaders across sectors to take action on pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges.
For more information, visitclintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.
