Thrive
Mayor: Moffitt still has a home in St. Petersburg
A three-year-old redevelopment proposal that would have brought a Moffitt Cancer Center to St. Petersburg is again noteworthy, as new plans for part of the site are moving forward.
However, Mayor Ken Welch is adamant that the city’s future still includes the renowned Tampa-based healthcare provider. He also highlighted overlooked discrepancies between the two proposals.
Welch said he has remained in contact with Moffitt’s chief executive officer Dr. Patrick Hwu and Beth Houghton, the local chairperson of its hospital board. City Development Administrator James Corbett has spoken with the institution’s leadership “within the past couple of weeks.”
“The conversations have never stopped,” Welch told the Catalyst. “We talked about other places that made sense in the city, including the Gas Plant, but other locations as well.”
Those potential sites include three acres of city-owned land at 800 1st Ave. S. retained by passing on Atlanta-based developer TPA Group and Moffitt’s 2022 proposal. The firm offered $5 million for 4.56 acres in April of that year, about $1.1 million per acre.
Third Lake Partners paid $10 million for a 1.53-acre city-owned parking lot, about a third of the total TPA site, in September 2024. That equates to roughly $6.7 million per acre.
The city still owns the parcel and right-of-way, part of which would have housed Moffitt, outlined in red. Echelon Development will build twin 31-story residential towers directly south. Screengrab.
Welch said the previous deal “would have been a lot easier” if Moffitt were the sole applicant. He believes the cancer center would agree. “It would have had clear sailing.”
Moffitt could now have a larger footprint in St. Petersburg. The TPA project’s 30-story residential tower and 14-story hotel would have dwarfed the three-story, 75,000-square-foot cancer center.
Welch noted Moffitt would have only occupied half of the three-acre, still-developable site to the north. He could not justify a $19 million discount on the land, “knowing that down the line, we could have a high degree of success just working with Moffitt.”
“I believe Moffitt will be here,” Welch said. “I think they want to be here, and it’ll be much simpler and more straightforward if it’s just the city and Moffitt, and not a third-party developer trying to take advantage.”
The TPA project also encompassed the former UPC Insurance site at 800 2nd Ave. S. Welch scrapped the proposal in August 2022.
Tampa-based Third Lake bought the bankrupt company’s former headquarters for $10.5 million in November 2022. The firm leased the adjacent parking lot from the city before acquiring it in September.
A joint venture between Third Lake and St. Petersburg’s Echelon Development submitted plans for a $225 million project at the site in April. TPA and Moffitt’s estimated project cost was $350 million.
The southern half of the TPA Group and Moffitt site will become twin 31-story towers. Image: City documents.
The former proposal included 35 affordable and 35 workforce housing units, 330 market-rate apartments, a 70-key hotel and 300 public parking spaces. Echelon’s redevelopment – approved by the city council Thursday – features 824 market-rate apartments, 35,860 square feet of street-level retail space and 1,550 parking spaces.
Welch asked TPA to provide additional affordable units or contribute to the city’s housing fund. The firm “wouldn’t budge.”
“TPA was trying to benefit and get $19 million worth of reduced costs on that land, and to prove that, we sold a third of that property – not half, just the southern third – for $10 million and put that into affordable housing,” Welch added.
The city put $4.2 million from the sale into the Housing Capital Improvement Program trust fund. Officials said that equates to 290 rather than 70 affordable and workforce housing units.
And, perhaps most importantly, Welch reiterated that “we still have the land that Moffitt wanted to develop on.”
He also noted there is more certainty with the nearby Historic Gas Plant District’s redevelopment. The city is already discerning how to move forward without the Tampa Bay Rays. “So, I think there are a lot of opportunities when they’re [Moffitt] ready,” Welch said.
Moffitt has eyed Pasco County and St. Petersburg for expansion, prioritizing the former locale when the TPA proposal failed. The organization’s 360,000-square-foot Speros campus will open in January 2026.
“They know the city, when they are ready, is ready to move forward,” Welch said. “We would love to have Moffitt in our community, and we’ll continue to look for the right location and agreement with them to make that happen.”
St. Petersburg will soon have access to similar services regardless. Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital will open an expansive oncology and orthopaedic center in partnership with Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute, Women’s Care and All Florida Orthopaedic Associates later this year.
A city-provided project comparison.
Layne Boleman
May 18, 2025at7:32 pm
Everything Welch touches turns to garbage. He was amusing before he became mayor, but now the mask is off and the only thing he really shines at are being stunningly inept and boringly corrupt.
Every time he talks about equity or the future or progress, it’s just window dressing for another crappy concept full of graft and zero public benefit. He literally tried everything possible to sell out the residents to a powerful rich baseball team, exactly like was done to the gasplant community decades ago. That ought to show you just what a low-ethics sellout he really is. Thank God that deal was defeated through natural disaster and Sternberg’s unbelievable greed.
The comments by Mr DeLisle here are 1000% spot on . The public needs to wake up and break us out of Welch’s mess and the sink of one-party politics.
S. Rose Smith-Hayes
May 18, 2025at2:03 pm
Moffitt should have been given the first deal. One cannot get a breast exam South of Central Ave. Fix this Mayor Welch, fast please.
Hugh Hazeltine
May 18, 2025at1:59 pm
This from Third Lake Partners web site…
Third Lake Partners (“TLP” or “Third Lake”) is an investment advisory firm that advises a variety of private investment funds, influential families and individuals. Since Third Lake’s founding in 2019, we have focused on alternative investment strategies while also offering total portfolio advisory services, directly or indirectly through third party advisors with whom Third Lake itself has long standing relationships.
Ted Bochnik
May 18, 2025at8:45 am
Welch is only interested in reparations (“intentional equity” in Welch-speak). Commenter DeLisle’s rightly points out the benefits St.Pete could be enjoying if we had a mayor that was interested in the city’s development rather than the interests of a select group of constituents. First it was Moffitt, then the Rays. As the city continues to grow and expand, we can no longer afford to have a career politician with an agenda and his enablers on the city council let these opportunities slip through our fingers.
Mike Kosempa
May 18, 2025at6:27 am
Mayorish welch re election blitz is so profoundly embarrassing to watch. Doesnt anyone close to this guy care enough about him or the city to read him the writing on the wall. Its over dude. Go. Just go. Let someone who administers cities administer our city. We cant fill the potholes in the streets with your donkey excuses.
Alan DeLisle
May 17, 2025at5:13 pm
I’ve been in economic development for 35 years and dealt with many top tier clients. More than I can count.
Let me give some obvious advice: when you have a big fish like Moffitt on the line with the deal we had, you reel it in as fast as you can. Never, ever let a Moffitt walk away. It’s been over three years so why hasn’t Welch delivered on Moffitt, and instead, just keeps recycling the same dreadful excuses. Welch’s quotes in this article are meaningless. He allowed Moffitt to make their bed in Pasco County. Period.
If Welch had given even half the effort he gave to the Rays, cancer research and clinical care would be happening right now in St Pete. I know because I negotiated the Moffitt deal.
Not only had we negotiated for over 200 high end medical and support jobs, and another 200 hotel jobs, and affordable housing , but we also had public use of their privately funded parking deck. It was one of the best deals a city could ever ask for.
Welch cancelled it, along with the Trop-Midtown deal, the city Marina deal, and the new City Hall deal, without any professional understanding of economic development. We have sadly learned that Welch can cancel deals but he has no capacity to deliver them.
Explain this one: you killed the Moffitt deal because you wanted more affordable housing and now you get even less with the new deal—-zero to be exact—-and still no Moffitt. What are you doing?
St Pete, you deserve so much better.
Joseph Trapolsi
May 17, 2025at3:58 pm
Ken Welsh has done a horrible job as mayor of St. Petersburg.