{"id":386439,"date":"2026-08-31T20:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/386439\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T20:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:22:11","slug":"the-sail-plaza-is-likely-getting-a-new-operator-new-food-concepts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/386439\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sail Plaza Is Likely Getting a New Operator, New Food Concepts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tampa could hand exclusive control of <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/restaurants\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"27\" title=\"Restaurants\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">food<\/a> and beverage operations at the 600,000-square-foot Tampa Convention Center and The Sail Plaza, including the space occupied by Big Ray\u2019s Fish Camp, to a new company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of the four national <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/retail-news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"Retail\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hospitality<\/a> companies seeking the <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/category\/business-news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"16\" title=\"business\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">business<\/a>, Sodexo Live\u2019s Volume Services scored highest in Tampa\u2019s Aug. 21 evaluation, with 83.2 points out of 100. Levy Premium Foodservice scored 80.3, incumbent Aramark Sports and Entertainment 77.7 and OVG Hospitality 77.1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Redesigned food outlets, new outdoor concepts, expanded programming, new menus, a tasting room, mobile ordering, digital signage and self-checkout are among the changes bidders have proposed for the Convention Center and The Sail Plaza.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Untitled-July-06-2026-at-13.37.25-36-52-1000x563.jpeg\" alt=\"The Sail Plaza waterfront bar and Big Ray\u2019s Fish Camp outside the Tampa Convention Center in downtown Tampa\" class=\"wp-image-92818\"  \/>The Sail Plaza is part of Tampa\u2019s competition for a new Convention Center food and beverage operator.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The contract covers catering, concessions, restaurants and bars across the property, an operation that generated $17.58 million in sales from May 2025 through April 2026. The Sail Plaza, which includes The Sail\u2019s 360-degree waterfront bar, Big Ray\u2019s Fish Camp and outdoor event space, generated more than $4 million in fiscal 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the waterfront between downtown and Harbour Island, the Convention Center expects 326,290 attendees across at least 101 events this year, generating a projected $149.1 million economic impact. Tampa is studying a major expansion after <a href=\"https:\/\/tbbwmag.com\/tourism\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"29\" title=\"Tourism\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tourism<\/a> consultants concluded it needs more exhibit and ballroom space to compete for larger conventions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tampa evaluated the bids using $20 million in first-year revenue and 5% annual growth over the five-year contract. The winner must invest at least $5 million, with Tampa encouraging larger commitments and taking ownership of fixed improvements once installed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bidders will appear separately before the evaluation committee on Sept. 29 to answer questions raised by their written proposals, including staffing, transition plans and examples of comparable convention center, restaurant, and catering operations, before the committee resumes public deliberations.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa could hand exclusive control of food and beverage operations at the 600,000-square-foot Tampa Convention Center and The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-386439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}