ARK Invest recently relocated to St. Petersburg, and its CEO, Cathie Wood, will sit down with Embarc Collective's Lakshmi Shenoy for a fireside chat Nov. 5 at the Florida Bitcoin & Blockchain Summit. The summit represents a rapidly growing blockchain community in Tampa Bay anchored by Celsius Network, which recently raised $400 million and is lead sponsor for the summit.
As of Saturday afternoon, 23 (free) tickets remained for From Public Servant to Private Citizen: A Reflective Conversation with Rick Kriseman, scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20 at thestudio@620. The live event, part of the outgoing mayor's "Faring Well Tour," will be a question-and-answer interview with 620 director Bob Devin Jones. Find tickets here.
Pinellas County is offering residents two more opportunities to submit their thoughts on redistricting. The Pinellas Redistricting Board is holding two more input sessions on Oct. 20, at 9 a.m., and on Oct. 21, at 6 p.m. Redistricting is the process of redrawing legislative districts and only occurs every 10 years following the United States Census. Residents who wish to participate can join the meeting via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84768447041 or by calling the Zoom webinar at 1-312-626-6799. The Webinar ID is 847 6844 7041.
A report released Thursday by Price Waterhouse Cooper and the Urban Land Institute has the Tampa Bay region ranked fifth in the nation for overall real estate prospects. The rankings were released in the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2022 report that highlights evolving trends shaping the real estate industry. The report includes proprietary data and insights from nearly 1,700 leading industry experts and explores the sector’s encouraging and unprecedented recovery from the pandemic. Nashville took the top spot, while Tampa/St. Petersburg ranked just below Austin and above Charlotte.
St. Petersburg will soon be featured on an upcoming episode of American Dream Home. The series airs on the FOX Business Network and shares a behind-the-scenes look at custom-built homes across American and the stories behind them. Hosted by Cheryl Casone, American Dream Homes examines how people achieved their life goals, and this week’s episode takes place in St. Pete. FOX Business launched the series on Sept. 21.
Four area hospitals are once again teaming up to raise awareness about the dangers of opioid abuse and the proper disposal of medications. Largo Medical Center, Northside Hospital, St. Petersburg General Hospital and Palms of Pasadena Hospital announced today that they are hosting the third-annual opioid take-back event on Oct. 23. The “Crush the Crisis” event coincides with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Community members are invited to safely and anonymously dispose of unused or expired prescription medication at the event. Largo Medical Center will host “Crush the Crisis” at 1551 West Bay Drive from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. This will be a drive-through event.
The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay will perform Saturday at 6 p.m. in Vinoy Park, prior to the Florida Orchestra "Pops in the Park" concert, which starts at 7. Song sheets will be provided for the "Big Sing" event, so that audience members can participate. Free trolleys will be providing service from the Sundial parking garage to Vinoy Park approximately every 15 minutes.
The St. Pete City Council has greenlighted an incentive package for a Fortune 500 company that plans to relocate its global HQ to St. Petersburg. The company, codenamed Project Athena, would lease at least 100,000 square feet in St. Pete and bring 300 jobs that would pay an average annual wage of $120,000, according to city documents. The company can receive a financial incentive of up to $475,000. If the company meets certain conditions, it would receive an initial base incentive of $250,000, it may also receive a one-time hiring incentive up to $125,000.
On Thursday, the St. Pete City Council approved $2 million in tax increment financing (TIF) funds for the Jordan Park redevelopment project. The funds will go towards the $93.3 million revitalization project in Jordan Park, a historic African American housing development in South St. Petersburg. The project involves renovating 206 residential units and constructing 60 new units for the Senior Village.
St. Pete-based Catalina, a leader in shopper intelligence and omni-channel media solutions, has entered a partnership with advertising tech firm Amobee. California-based Amobee, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singtel, and Catalina's strategic partnership will provide advertisers with real-time insights from UPC-level transaction data. Advertisers will now be able to leverage Amobee’s in-flight optimization for CPG brands with insights from Catalina’s real-time point of sale data, the pair announced Thursday.
Following an increase of people participating in outdoor activities during the pandemic, SmartAsset.com set out to rank the best places for outdoor enthusiasts to live and work. The financial advisement website compared 95 cities across several metrics and St. Petersburg claimed the top spot in their rankings. The city ranked 13th-best for air quality and 14th-best for its percentage of parkland. St. Pete also had the 18th-best unemployment rate, and Florida's outdoor recreation economy was ranked second in the country.
The Cross-Bay Ferry will begin its fifth season Oct. 21. Passenger service between St. Petersburg and Tampa will last through May; later evening departures will be available for the first time, with final departure times from Tampa as late as 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. First departures from St. Petersburg will start at 4:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. on Saturdays, and 11 a.m. on Sundays. Final departures from Tampa will be at 10:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 7:30 p.m. on Sundays. For tickets, schedules and additional information, click here.
