How many times this year have you told a visiting friend that the Riverwalk loops all the way around to Ballast Point Park, only to catch yourself mid-sentence and admit it doesn't, not yet? That gap has been part of the route for so long that it's easy to forget it's temporary. This fall it's finally closing, just not on the timeline most casual walkers assume, and not on the side of the river where all the new dog parks and brunch menus have been landing.
Two very different things happened to the Tampa Riverwalk in 2026. On the downtown side, the finished stretch between Curtis Hixon Park and Water Street got noticeably more to do. Upriver, on the west bank, the stretch that would actually complete a continuous path to Ballast Point is still a construction site with barges, cranes, and drilling rigs sinking foundations forty feet into the riverbed. Knowing which of those two projects you're standing on changes what you should expect to find this week.
What the City Finished This Winter
On February 10, Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park opened two new dog parks where a single shared run used to sit. The split isn't cosmetic. A 1,980-square-foot park for small dogs now sits near the palms and Four Green Fields, while a 4,900-square-foot park for larger dogs occupies the lower elevation closer to the Hillsborough River, nearly 7,000 square feet total between the two. The project cost just over $1.4 million, funded out of the $24.75 million reimbursement grant the Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency approved for the Tampa Museum of Art's Centennial Expansion next door.
That funding source matters because it explains why the dog run moved at all. The museum's expansion, anchored by a $28 million lead gift from Tampa developer Dick Corbett and more than $100 million raised so far, needed the old dog park's footprint to build a planned four-story, 55,000-square-foot glass pier over the river. Relocating the dogs first was the condition for the museum getting its site.
"The Riverwalk and Curtis Hixon Park, already beautiful and welcoming, are all that and more now," Mayor Jane Castor said at the ribbon cutting. "This collaborative project has delivered these fantastic new dog parks, and now the Tampa Museum can take over the old dog park, making room to expand, including a glass pier on the Hillsborough River."
A few blocks upriver, Water Works Park got its own upgrade in March: a new We-Go-Round, an ADA-friendly piece of playground equipment with a ground-level entry so kids using wheelchairs can roll straight in, plus wheelchair clips and a center handhold for shared spinning. Parks and Recreation Director Ted Fowler framed it as a reliability fix as much as an access one, saying the new equipment would mean less maintenance downtime than the piece it replaced. Both projects are done and open to anyone walking that stretch right now.
What Private Developers Are Adding to the Finished End
The dining side of the same finished stretch kept moving too. Riverwalk Terrace, a breakfast and brunch spot serving Mediterranean and French-Italian dishes, opened this year at the Tampa Marriott Water Street, joining Anchor and Brine, Lona, Driftlight Steakhouse, and Beacon, the rooftop bar at the sister JW Marriott next door. A market-style companion concept is expected to follow in the same building.
Closer to the arena, a Water Street restaurateur unveiled plans in early March for La Victoria, a Mexican restaurant aimed at office workers, residents, and the convention crowd, though no firm opening date has been set. It would join a stretch of Water Street that has already added its first Chipotle among other new eateries this year, according to local coverage of the district's buildout.
The bigger swing hasn't broken ground. Strategic Property Partners has proposed a 3,500-seat live music and performance venue on Channelside Drive, directly across from Benchmark International Arena, designed to host touring artists who currently skip Tampa because the market lacks a stage between small clubs and the 21,500-seat arena itself. The plan, developed with Vinik Sports Group, would also extend Ford Thunder Alley across Channelside Drive to connect the new district to the arena. It's still a proposal, not a construction timeline.
Further out, the Pendry tower under construction at 100 Ashley Drive is expected to bring four new restaurant and bar concepts to the Riverwalk when it opens, including a modern Mexican restaurant and a speakeasy lounge, but that opening isn't projected until 2027.
What's Still Underwater, Literally
None of that explains the actual gap in the loop. That's the job of the West River BUILD project, a $56.8 million effort that broke ground on October 28, 2025, after decades of delay dating back to the first Riverwalk planks laid in Curtis Hixon Park in 1976. The funding breaks down to $24 million from a federal BUILD grant, $10 million from the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, $8 million from the Community Investment Tax, and roughly $15.6 million from future non-ad valorem bonds, according to the Business Observer's reporting on the groundbreaking.
The project will add close to two miles of new path along the west bank of the Hillsborough River between Platt Street and Rome Avenue, including 1,500 feet of restored living shoreline, plus more than five miles of roadway safety upgrades through Platt, Rome, and Columbus and into Ridgewood Park. Once finished, it closes the last remaining piece of a 12.2-mile continuous pathway running along both banks of the river all the way to Ballast Point Park.
As of this summer, that finish is still being built underwater in the most literal sense. Crews began drilling supports in May 2026 for three overwater structures: the Platt Street Pedestrian Bridge, the Brorein Street Pedestrian Bridge, and the Tony Jannus Park Observation Overlook. Nearly 70 drilled shafts are going in, some reaching close to 50 feet into the riverbed, each one engineered to support more than 130 tons, which the city has compared to the weight of about 20 adult elephants. The Haskell Company is serving as design-builder on that work, partnered with Orion Marine Construction for the marine portions. As of a July update from the city, construction is active across five of the project's six segments, with substantial completion still targeted for early 2027.
Which Stretch to Actually Walk This Week
If you're deciding where to spend a Saturday morning on the river right now, the choice comes down to which half of the project is actually finished.
- Curtis Hixon to Water Street: fully open, includes both new dog parks, plus Riverwalk Terrace and the rest of the Water Street dining stretch.
- Water Works Park: open, now with the ADA-accessible We-Go-Round alongside the existing splash pad and dog run.
- The arena corridor near Channelside: open for existing dining and events, but the 3,500-seat venue proposed across from Benchmark International Arena is still just a plan.
- Platt Street to Rome Avenue on the west bank: not open. This is the active construction zone with the pile drivers and barges, targeting completion in early 2027.
- The connector into Ridgewood Park and on to Ballast Point Park: not walkable yet. This is the piece that finally makes the 12.2-mile claim true, and it's still months out.
The dog parks and the breakfast spot are worth the trip today. The bridge that actually finishes the loop is going to take a little longer, and right now it's still forty feet down in the riverbed.
If you're the kind of Tampa resident who tracks this kind of thing before it shows up in the mainstream feed, Ali Schaaff covers the Tampa Bay corridor block by block, from what's under construction on the Riverwalk to what's actually opening at ground level.
