The first time James Nozar came to Tampa nearly a decade ago, he didn’t think much of it.

Downtown wasn’t very pedestrian-friendly. He saw only sprawling suburban communities. He didn’t ever envision living here.

But when he got a phone call last year about a CEO job that would give him the reins to transform the entire city of Tampa, he reconsidered.

Nozar, 37, was hired in February to be the CEO of Strategic Property Partners, the real estate company backed by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment. He’s charged with taking Vinik’s lofty $2 billion plans to transform 40 acres of downtown Tampa’s urban core and making it come to life.

“It’s so rare to see development projects of this scale. From the size of it to the ownership and the financial backing,” Nozar said in an interview at the SPP offices in Channelside Bay Plaza with theTampa Bay Times recently. “When I told my former boss about it, he said this is once in a lifetime.”

Read more in the Tampa Bay Times here.