The center is connected to the neighboring Channelside District and Ybor City via the TECO Line Streetcar, which has a station across the street.

The former location of the fort was used for various industrial and commercial purposes until the late 1980s, when it was cleared to make way for a new convention center to replace Tampa's aging Curtis Hixon Hall.

The city's original development plan called for the Tampa Convention Center to be built concurrently with a large hotel.

However, financial difficulties and problems with developers caused this portion of the plan to be delayed until 2000, when the 27-story Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel, the city's largest at the time, opened less than a block away on Garrison Channel.

It hosts the yearly Tampa Bay Comic Con, anime convention MetroCon, as well as the Florida Bar Exam.