St. Pete City Council moved a funding mechanism during a meeting Thursday that could eventually allow the city to use $20 million from the downtown tax incremental funding district to develop the uplands area of the St. Pete Pier.
The plan includes two restaurant locations that would later be leased out to restaurants to operate near the St. Pete Museum of History and the Pelican Parking Lot overlooking Albert Whitted Airport.
Though the ideas are still in their infancy, St. Pete director of planning and economic development Dave Goodwin expects the location near the museum to be used as casual dining and the one near the Pelican Lot to be more formal.
The city would basically build a shell and require possible tenants to build out the interior.
The city is currently in the Request for Proposal phase of the process searching for designers, engineers and landscapers to form an initial team to establish a rough design to present to the city. The time frame for completion is funding is approved would mirror that of Pier Park, which is expected to be completed in 2018.
“The Pier project has got to be looked at in its entirety,” Goodwin said. “The whole thing needs to work together. That’s why we’re prioritizing the Pier approach.”
Goodwin said a successful Pier needs to have activities connecting it to the rest of downtown. The restaurants, and other planned amenities including a grand entry, street market and other vendors, would build on that notion.
The plan is part of the downtown waterfront master plan that was already approved. It would not go through the same onerous process the city saw with the design process for choosing a new Pier.
But that doesn’t mean it won’t come without the same contention.
Safety Harbor resident and Pier activist Tom Lambdon is pushing a petition drive that would ask voters whether or not they should be able to vote, at the ballot box, on downtown waterfront construction or demolition.
“This latest move by the Kriseman administration to push forward with spending yet ANOTHER $20 Million on the Pier uplands for commercial development for private businesses on the downtown waterfront represents just another deliberate manipulation and hijacking of the public trust given to Rick Kriseman when elected to act as a responsible steward of this priceless City asset as part of his responsibilities as Mayor,” Lambdon wrote in a statement.
If his petition drive is successful, it could potentially stifle progress on the project. However, the city won’t speculate on that threat because no petition signatures have been turned in or verified yet.
Lambdon’s petition effort could also affect the proposed new Pier design, Pier Park.
“This is NOT Rick Kriseman’s property – It belongs to each and every taxpayer of the City – and SHOULD REQUIRE VOTER APPROVAL before ANY demolition or contruction (sic) upon ANY of it – period,” he continued.
Goodwin said the city has had conversations with various restaurateurs about the possibility of leasing space, but that decision will come down to another Request for Proposal process. Goodwin admitted the city had discussions with Casey Gonzmart, owner of the popular Columbia Restaurant chain.
An RFP has already been put out for a third restaurant planned for Pier Park.
