Place
What’s next for St. Pete’s downtown waterfront?
City officials are asking stakeholders to help reimagine a downtown St. Petersburg waterfront with new and enhanced arts institutions, technologically advanced connectivity and, potentially, without Al Lang Stadium.
The St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership heard pertinent planning considerations Tuesday for an area formally known as the Center for the Arts. Chris Ballestra, the city’s managing director of development, said the southern waterfront’s impending makeover would intertwine with surrounding projects.
The overarching goal is to foster cohesiveness, increase public accessibility and accommodate future growth while showcasing the nation’s third-largest contiguous park system. Ballestra said the area, roughly spanning from 1st Avenue to 5th Avenue (Dali Boulevard) South, “was clearly not master-planned.”
“We have a lot of opportunity down there as a city,” Ballestra said. “You can take this idea to a lot of fun places.”
A rendering released in 2022 shows a reimagined Center for the Arts. City officials have enlisted another firm to provide updated conceptual images. Rendering: ARC3 Architecture.
He stressed that former city officials platted that area as the St. Petersburg Center for the Arts decades ago. The moniker is not a slight to the Warehouse Arts District.
Ballestra said the Mahaffey Theater became the area’s first current stakeholder when it replaced the circa-1965 Bayfront Center Theatre in the 1980s. A parking garage followed and blocked waterfront views, arguably the city’s most valuable asset.
Ballestra asked attendees to imagine alternatives. For example, the city could move the “hulking structure” behind the theater – already blocking the bay – “and then create a public civic plaza that you can literally see right through, to the water.”
Ballestra said Bill Edwards, whose company Big3 Entertainment operates the city-owned facility, has spent over $10 million on the theater in the past decade.
He also noted that the institution has myriad needs, including a new fountain. Edwards’ organization is responsible for daily maintenance. However, the city must foot the bill for capital improvement projects.
“A project like this is going to be expensive, no doubt about it,” Ballestra said. “But it doesn’t have to be done all at once.”
He explained that officials are planning for 50 to 75 years into the future. Ballestra said new technologies, like electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, could potentially mitigate the need for thousands of parking spaces.
While the city’s Center for the Arts plans are still in the earliest development stages, officials and stakeholders began discussing a reimagined district in 2022. Some aspects, like the Dali Museum’s long-planned expansion, are already underway.
The Florida Orchestra operates from the Mahaffey and recently announced its intent to build a permanent home adjacent to the theater. The city has until November 2025 to decide Al Lang’s immediate fate.
The baseball stadium opened in 1947 and underwent extensive renovations in 1997. The Tampa Bay Rays organization, which owns the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer franchise, leases the property and continue improving the aging facility to ensure it remains functional.
“We hope that we can retain the Rowdies,” Ballestra said. “That being said, nobody, I think, would argue that the land … is terribly underutilized.”
Al Lang, “essentially a park” with waterfront views, only opens to the public for 18 annual home matches. Ballestra wants to create more flexible space and noted that Edwards’ company orchestrated several successful concerts during the time it leased the city-owned site.
Beach Drive ends at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, and the organization must build a new facility. Ballestra said the city could extend the prominent thoroughfare south into the Center for the Arts. “It could take a lot of paths.”
Albert Whitted Airport has expanded into space long used by the St. Petersburg Grand Prix. Accommodating one of the city’s primary economic drivers is another focal point.
The airport bifurcates the Innovation District – also undergoing a master planning process – and the Center for the Arts. That area encompasses Port St. Petersburg, which lacks public access and parking.
An overhead view of the Innovation District, with Albert Whitted Airport and the Center for the Arts to the right. Screengrab.
Ballestra believes there are novel ways to move people throughout the area, including autonomous shuttles. He noted that a new facility at the Port site could connect to the Maritime and Defense Technology Hub via a sky bridge.
“We actually have a great design right now,” Ballestra said. “It needs to be updated … but it’s a new and improved version of the existing facility.”
He said officials will continue gathering feedback from area tenants before presenting recommendations to the mayoral administration and city council. Ballestra also stressed the importance of gathering public feedback.
“To be fair, the biggest stakeholder of the city is the citizens of St. Pete,” he said. “This is all food for thought. It’s whatever the public wants to do.”
MIKE L STORER
August 31, 2024at10:05 am
Agree with all mostly…lived here for over 50 years and have seen first hand the actions of the past city governments all of whom have not taken into account the infrastructure and the results of their actions.The point of no return has past long ago,we are in trouble now and it will get worse,less water more sewage ,more dumping into the bay all because of what was called progress..quit building more..if you dont build it they wont come period…each new building is not now nor will it ever be affordable,we have a totally weak and not in touch city government, a mayor who lives in another city/county with an ego that that will never be sated.
Laurie
August 31, 2024at8:50 am
Mark, how has “Albert Whitted Airport expanded into space long used by the St. Petersburg Grand Prix.”? The airport has been there long before the race! Instead of building more (stadiums/parking garages, etc…), we need to focus on things that need to be fixed like seawalls along the waterfront, roads & sewage systems. Who in the City will be making money off of this next project? That is what I would like to know.
S. Rose Smith-Hayes
August 31, 2024at7:16 am
The $725,000 Birthday Party for the 5th Birthday of the Pier. You have already ruined the beautiful building that was there once. I have no desire to celebrate what is there now. It is a tourist attraction and they will continue to go there Birthday Party or not. Local citizens do not really appreciate what you have done to that space. Those funds can be put to better use. Homelessness is a huge issue, Low Income housing is a big issue unless you want St. Pete to become the ‘Southern New York City’just stop spending our money on things we do not need.
Stephanie
August 31, 2024at7:14 am
All this planning and building up costs lots of money that can be used for a better purpose. What about low income housing for seniors and I mean low income less than 1000 a month they have nowhere to go the low income housing according to the mayor starts at 1200 which is absolutely ridiculous so why don’t you put your money and your plans to a better use to help the people of St. Petersburg Florida instead of building more, buildings or high rises used to land for a better purpose. The infrastructure will not be able to handle all of this, and it will collapse upon itself and use the money for a purpose.
Donna Kostreva
August 30, 2024at9:18 pm
Velva Lee Hersey, Thank you for you continued support of rational behavior at City Hall with gentle reminders of what has happened in the past. I too, am unhappy with the wasteful spending at City Hall. A $750,000 “party” to celebrate the Pier’s fifth anniversary is disgraceful, especial in light of Council wanting to raise sewer, water and garbage rates, as well as property taxes !My neighbors on six blocks of Beach Drive SE pay well over one million dollars in property taxes so I guess they are paying for the party!
Donna Kostreva
August 30, 2024at8:56 pm
Melvin Junior- Albert Whitted Airport is the birthplace of scheduled commercial airline flight. On the first day of 1914, Tony Jannus, took off from the Central Yacht Basin in the Benoist XIV with A.C. Pheil, our former MAYOR as his passenger, flying to Tampa. There’s a statue commemorating this at the Pier. Have you seen it?
The economic impact to the City is well over $35,000,000. It employs several hundred people.
It is the critical asset in fueling and maintaining the Bayflight helicopters.
AWA is designated by the FAA as a critical reliever airport. Think natural disaster staging facility bringing in life saving supplies.
People take flying lessons there.
Have you ever watched the planes taking off while you eat a nice meal at the Hanger?
Businessmen and women fly in from all over to conduct business here.
AWA is an imperative asset for Homeland Security.
Albert Whitted Airport is an invaluable asset for the City and citizens of St. Petersburg !
MelvinJunior
August 30, 2024at8:58 am
Not a big soccer fan here, but hopefully the new Rays Owner(s) will actually do ‘something’ with the Rowdies, build them a new stadium/soccer club, & bring them to the MLS before it’s too late… Whether that is Tampa/Ybor or St. Pete, I don’t care. Just do SOMETHING. It’s a shame one of THE oldest, most historic soccer franchises in the U.S. (along with its current owners) cannot get just get it together!!!! I don’t even know WHY they (the Rays) they wanted it… They’ve literally, done NOTHING with it whatsoever!? I guess, they just wanted it to include with the impending sale of the team in order to make an even more attractive 2 for 1 professional sports teams offer to sell!? And, yeah… Lowering taxes (while people are struggling with overnight rate increases with homeowners insurance, HOA’s, etc. would definitely be a novel idea, versus 75-YEAR spending projects. That airport is such a waste. It truly benefits WHO… < 1% of the entire community (city/county)… Please.
John Donovan
August 29, 2024at7:54 pm
FYI- The hulking structure” is a parking garage.
Julie K
August 29, 2024at5:27 pm
There are more needs than a new shopping district and lots of restaurants. That seems to be the popular thing to create. Is the desire to remove Al Lang Field because they couldn’t wrestle the airport property out of the hands of aviators? Let’s retain some diversity and funkiness. We don’t need to be all modern and slick or we will lose the charm that is St. Pete. Planning is a good thing to bring ideas together and make sure that they are in sync. But, I don’t get the need to change everything in the name of “improvement”.
Philip
August 29, 2024at3:29 pm
This administration and council like to spend other people’s money. Why are they looking 50 to 75 years into the future (eVTOL means flying cars…lmao!) we have current needs that they need to addres. The public utility, police protection, fire protection, and infrastructure needs are significant and costs rise every year. Citizens need a brake from all the high cost projects that are not a necessary service provided by local government.
Mike
August 28, 2024at1:25 pm
Why do these people hate st petersburg so much? Whats the end game here? 80% affordable housing 20% parking lot? Count me out.
The new pier is great. I love it. It also completely ruined that entire segment of town leading to it. If thats success, how long before a white elephant failure rears its head, and every successful person leaves town and the disadvantaged are left behind to deal with these projects?
Where do they get these broad mandates? I know where the money comes from.
Velva Lee Heraty
August 28, 2024at12:50 pm
The city spent a fortune and held many, many resident meetings on what they called The Waterfront Master Plan. Experts were flown in who objectively assessed it. I remember going to at least three local meetings. Why are we reinventing the wheel? He talks as if this is all a revelation, well, it’s not. Personally I’m tired of this administration spending like there’s no tomorrow. For example, the huge sure to be a million when it gets a green light, celebration of a pier no one wanted but the former mayor. Can we please get a grip? PS I have a copy of it in case they can’t find one.
Gary MacMath
August 28, 2024at12:25 pm
The problem with planners is they always want to plan changes. After the Historic Gas Plant District, the city and its citizens needs a break from high cost projects, or at least invest heavily on flooding in neighborhoods, affordable housing and lowering taxes.