Place
Council greenlights affordable South St. Pete development
“We’re trying to house people immediately.”
City council members unanimously approved plans to provide 54 affordable rental units at the former site of a South St. Petersburg cultural landmark Thursday, despite the previous property owner’s pleas.
Fort Lauderdale-based Green Mills Group will pay $100 annually for the now-vacant .68-acre site along 22nd Street South, colloquially known as the Deuces. The $20 million project, dubbed Heritage Grove, will offer nine apartments for residents who earn less than 30% of the area median income (AMI), $25,050 for a two-person household.
Mayor Ken Welch’s administration selected Green Mills over proposals from South St. Pete resident Elihu Brayboy, who led the Tall Cotton Initiative, and Fort Lauderdale-based Alexander Goshen/Goode Van Slyk Architecture. Brayboy sold the property – once home to several African-American-owned businesses during the city’s Jim Crow era – for $100 in 2023 to settle a city lien.
“This will decline the commercial development of the 22nd Street area because the incomes of the new residents will not support the businesses that are there now,” Brayboy said. “The historic Black community was a mixed-income group. If you just use it as a dumping ground for low-income projects … you’re killing the aspects of retail development in that area.”
The property at 951 22nd St. S. once featured the Royal Hotel, which served Black professional baseball players and entertainers who headlined the nearby Manhattan Casino during segregation. Hurricane Irma destroyed what was subsequently known as the Merriwether Building in September 2017, eight years shy of its centennial anniversary.
An overhead map of the area. The Catalyst on the Deuces, at the intersection of 9th Avenue South, uses the subject property (red) for parking.
Brayboy, who has long fostered entrepreneurial opportunities along the Deuces, said the land is “critical” to the corridor’s ongoing revitalization. His group offered to purchase the property for $885,000, its appraised value, and provide 18 homeownership opportunities rather than rentals.
Tall Cotton proposed 3,000 square feet of retail space that would have featured a laundromat and neighborhood market, operated by the St. Pete Free Clinic. “I was never told that the property could be leased at $100 a year,” Brayboy said.
Administrators disagreed with his assertions. Aaron Fisch, real estate director, said offering Green Mills a forgivable 99-year lease allows the city to retain ownership and ensure long-term affordability.
City Development Administrator James Corbett explained that Tall Cotton lacked experience with new construction. Green Mills has completed several projects statewide, including Burlington Post and Burlington Place in St. Petersburg.
Tall Cotton proposed offering nine condominiums at 80% of the AMI and nine at 120%. Corbett also noted that under-construction projects to the north and south of the site would offer homeownership opportunities.
“So, we felt like this would be a good mix to include some rental property with those other two developments already in the works that are for sale,” he continued. “No one was provided any information or direction different than the other. It was all spelled out and advertised.”
Brayboy still owns a site to the north that once housed Chief’s Creole Cafe. The Catalyst on the Deuces, a popular lounge, now leases the building and uses the Merriwether property for parking.
Corbett said the city is working to identify other areas for parking, including a parcel adjacent to the Manhattan Casino. “We’re looking to do some improvements there to make sure that it’s safe and compliant.”
Green Mills believes Heritage Grove will help enhance the surrounding community’s “economic stability and vitality.”
Green Mills will cap 30 units at 60% of the AMI, three at 70% and 12 at 80%, in addition to the nine at 30%. Heritage Grove will also feature 2,500 square feet of retail space and local artwork that honors the corridor’s history.
The firm plans to work with the St. Pete Greenhouse to fill the development’s two or three retail bays, which will offer discounted rents. Development associate Manny Diaz said Green Mills believes there should be no discernible difference between affordable and market-rate housing.
Corbett said the administration “does not expect” Green Mills to ask for additional subsidies. The city’s contribution is a forgivable $885,000 promissory note.
Councilmember Richie Floyd called the city’s $16,399 per-unit cost a “great deal for us.” He also understood the public’s concerns over a lack of homeownership opportunities, “but when you look at the area holistically, I think this makes sense.”
Councilmember Deborah Figgs-Sanders noted that not all subsidized apartment complexes are “riddled with crime,” and people with nowhere to go typically prefer renting rather than trying to purchase a home. “We’re trying to house people immediately,” she said. “The sooner, the better.”
“You have a place that sits stagnant, and people have an opportunity to do something with it, until somebody else does something with it,” Figgs-Sanders added. “Then it becomes a priority … when that area sat there for a while.”
