K-9 facility faces new questions as Commerce Park proposals seek land

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ veto of $350,000 for a new St. Petersburg Police Department K-9 training facility has left the city searching for new funding, just as two competing Commerce Park redevelopment proposals offer potential paths for relocating the project.

The initial state funding request came as St. Petersburg’s police K-9 training facility was previously relocated, along with Fire and Rescue, to a site on the shore of Lake Maggiore in 2023. That current location gets pummeled by storms and floods, so K-9 trainers find it difficult, if not impossible, to ingress and egress with consistent flooding.

St. Petersburg Assistant Police Chief Michael Kovacsev added that it’s not safe for the animals either.

“Anytime there is a storm, none of the animals can be sequestered there due to concerns that the trailer and kennel system are not up to hurricane code,” he said.

“They essentially abandoned the facility, and we have to place the animals at the training center in crates,” Kovacsev continued. “There are also issues with wildlife being so close to Boyd Hill and feral cats … some of the animals were subject to waterborne illnesses.”

While initially considering staying on the property, Kovacsev said it remained too challenging, and over the last several years the department spent “countless hours” trying to identify alternative parcels, preferably in industrial rather than residential areas.

“A great deal of effort and time goes into training the dogs, and it would be extremely challenging to have this set up in a primarily residential area,” he said.

The K-9 trainers and animals are abandoning the current site, allowing Fire Rescue to expand its own facilities on the parcel, leaving the K-9 unit without a permanent training facility or the state funding it had sought for a replacement.

But two developers, HP Capital and SkyView Companies, both of which submitted redevelopment proposals for nearby Commerce Park, offer different approaches that could affect where the K-9 facility is ultimately built.

Here’s how the developer proposals differ:

HP Capital’s proposal, dubbed Corridor 22, offers the city $5 million to purchase and expand the redevelopment footprint to approximately 6.25 acres, which includes the parcel currently planned for the K-9 facility. If the proposal is approved, the city would receive $5 million for the property and could then determine whether to allocate a portion of those proceeds toward constructing a K-9 facility elsewhere.

HP Capital seeks the additional land to develop 320 mixed-income apartments, a 75,000-square-foot innovation center, office space, neighborhood retail, restaurants, a grocery store and a 25,000-square-foot public plaza. However, the proposal does not identify a replacement site for the K-9 facility.

Alternatively, SkyView proposes relocating the K-9 facility through a land swap, conveying a nearby 2.16-acre parcel it owns to the city in exchange for the currently proposed K-9 site.  Under the proposal, the city would receive another parcel suitable for the K-9 facility while freeing the Commerce Park site for redevelopment. In exchange, SkyView would construct the largest residential project among the seven finalists: 422 apartments with ground-floor retail and structured parking.

SkyView’s proposal differs from HP Capital’s because it identifies a specific replacement site for the K-9 facility. The proposed 2.16-acre parcel along 7th Avenue South, west of 25th Street South, is in an industrial area—a preference previously identified by Kovacsev, who said training K-9s in primarily residential areas would be difficult. But, the site is linear in shape and borders the CEMEX St Petersburg Ready-Mix concrete plant, so its feasibility is not certain. 

In short, HP Capital offers cash for the current site, which could be used to buy land and build the K-9 facility elsewhere, but no specific replacement location, while SkyView offers a replacement site but no funding to build the facility.

Without the $350,000 appropriation requested from the state and vetoed by DeSantis, the city must identify a new funding source regardless of where the facility ultimately lands.

“The appropriation would have assisted a great deal with a lot of the pre-construction,” Kovacsev said, adding that “the city and the PD will work collectively to try to identify sources within the budget or through Penny for Pinellas funds.”

This article has been updated from a previous version.