The office, housing and retail project planned for the site of the former St. Petersburg Police headquarters has all the factors the EDGE District needs for longterm success, the leader of the district’s business association told the St. Petersburg City Council.

A parking garage that will be part of the project is especially important, said Barbara Voglewede, executive director of the EDGE Business District Association, just before the City Council approved a lease and development agreement with EDGE Central Development Partners for the property at 1300 1st Ave. N.
While Thursday’s vote to approve the deal was unanimous, at least one City Council member is questioning the need for more office space in light of workforce changes brought out by the Covid-19 pandemic.

EDGE Central plans a 100,000-square-foot Class A office building, 22,000 square feet of retail space, at least 56 residential condos, 30 workforce rental apartments and a 600-space parking garage. The development will be organized around a new civic plaza, which will include a tribute monument to The Courageous 12, the 12 Black St. Petersburg police officers who sued the city to gain the full rights of their white counterparts.

by: Kevin McQuaid | Florida Business Observer, Commercial Real Estate Editor
After being selected from a shortlist of five last November to redevelop the former St. Petersburg police headquarters site, Edge Central Development Partners had planned to begin demolition this summer. In place of the old police station and offices, Edge Central intends to construct an $80 million mix of offices, condominiums, a parking garage, “workforce” apartments and ground-floor retail space. For the city’s Edge District and beyond, the project has been highly anticipated: The new offices will be the city’s first in about 30 years; the new condos the first in the district in more than a decade. Mayor Rick Kriseman last fall described the redevelopment of the roughly two-acre tract at 1300 First Ave. North as “the most exciting and dynamic” project in recent history because it met several city needs, most notably for more affordable rental units.
Then COVID-19 hit, disrupting plans far and wide.

The City of St. Pete is moving forward with a proposal for the redevelopment of a prime Central Avenue block in downtown’s booming EDGE District. 
Earlier this year, the St. Pete Police Department moved into a new 170,000 square foot headquarters building at 1301 1st Avenue North. The completion of the new $78.5 million facility paved the way for the redevelopment of the former police station, which sits on 2 acres directly across the street at 1300 1st Avenue North.
In January, with the new headquarters nearing completion, the City began the redevelopment process by issuing a request for proposal (RFP), inviting developers to submit their vision for the site. The RFP contained a list of items and uses that defined the type of development the city wanted to see on the site. In May, it was announced that seven groups had submitted proposals. And of those seven, two were invited to City Hall to present their proposals.
St. Pete Rising previously reported that the two groups invited to present were Waverly Capital and Edge Central Development Partners. Both proposals incorporated Class A office space, ground-floor retail, public parking, and civic uses into their designs, which were all high-ranking items the city wanted to see.
Today, the City announced that they are moving forward with the proposal submitted by Edge Central Development Partners, a joint-venture between J Square Developers and DDA Development, both of whom have experience developing in Downtown St. Pete, along with Craig Sher and Will Conroy of Backstreet Capital LLC, and Tim Clemmons of Place Architecture, office leasing specialist Wendy Giffin of Cushman and Wakefield, among others.
In a signed term sheet, which will be presented to the St. Petersburg City Council on December 12, the group is agreeing to a number of items for the redevelopment. Most notably is the requirement for a minimum of 100,000 square feet of Class A office space on the site. 

This rendering from New York's HKS Architects shows what a redeveloped Tropicana Field site could look like if it includes a new baseball stadium. Planners are calling the project the Gas Plant District, after the black neighborhood that was razed decades ago to build the dome. They are also designing a plan that does not include a stadium. The 86-acre Trop site is set to be redeveloped, but city officials don't know whether to include a new ballpark for the Rays. Mayor Rick Kriseman says plans can proceed while the stadium issue is undecided, but others are unsure if developers would be willing to go along. There is also a question of whether the Rays can impede construction under the lease agreement that keeps the team playing in the dome through 2027.
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By Josh Solomon
Published Jul. 14, 2019
ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays have played in Tropicana Field for more than 20 years — and have spent half that time trying to escape it. The Trop is baseball's last dome, an outdated, obsolete dinosaur with too many catwalks and not enough fans.
But beneath that fossil of a ballpark sits 86 acres of urban gold.

​Royal Palm Market was launched in October of 2018 with under 20 vendors. It is located at 1111 Central Avenue in Downtown St. Petersburg, FL. The hours are every Thursday from 6pm until late. Their main goal is to bring the community and local businesses together on a regular, weekly basis. Royal Palm Market boasts over 50 vendors whom attend at least one market every month.

Located in the heart of Downtown St. Petersburg’s EDGE District, as the first market in St. Pete to focus specifically on our vendor’s outreach and growth with the idea of entrepreneurship in mind. This market strives to help small local businesses grow and build a community.