August 2025 Work Plan Update

Thanks to support from our members and board, we made progress on many of the priorities we identified in our 2025 Work Plan and kept momentum in our mission to champion community prosperity through purposeful, transformative projects.

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Clean and Safe

Service District - We have hired Shaun Drinkard, LPM, to help lead the development of a clean and safe urban management program. We have continued to meet with stakeholders to refine the services that will be offered by the program.

Williams Park - We have been awarded $850,000 by the legislature for Williams Park infrastructure improvements. We continued to host meetings with stakeholders, property owners and potential funders surrounding Williams Park. We have created a draft pilot management plan and budget for park improvements and programming as a part of a comprehensive clean and safe program in downtown.

Central Avenue - We have continued to worked with the City and local business owners to design street improvements to the First Block of Central Avenue to improve safety ADA compliance and pedestrian access.

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Walkability

Digital Wayfinding - IKE and City administration continue to meet to discuss next steps, including mapping out locations and timeline as well as negotiating a contract.

Car-Free St. Pete - The Car-Free St. Pete Committee has officially filed a new nonprofit organization under the name Connect Pinellas to continue the work of expanding alternative transportation options across the county. This effort will be led by the president, Kristen Ehrlich, with continued support from the Downtown Partnership.

Livability

Workforce Housing - We having been working with the City to explore accessible opportunities to expand affordable housing in Jamestown and Methodist Town. We also facilitated meeting of stakeholders in the Warehouse Arts District Association and along the Pinellas Trail to develop a proposal for upzoning the Pinellas Trail.

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Resiliency

Center for Coastal Resiliency - Kimley-Horn has completed initial drafts of architectural drawings for the facility through their work on the Innovation District Master Plan that we helped initiate and fund. We are currently working with the HR&A Advisors to complete an economic needs assessment that will measure the necessity of this facility, which will help to secure future funds for development.

USF College of Marine Science Facility - USF has been awarded funding from the legislature for the facility. We will continue to help them engage stakeholders to refine the development.

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Programming

We were pleased to host a membership event with the new CEO of Raymond James, Paul Shoukry, to discuss the global financial future as well as St. Pete's role as a center for financial services.

Our Sponsor and Supporter level members were invited by the Waterfront Center for the Arts project’s lead consultant and city officials a meeting last month to share the latest plans and gather stakeholder feedback.

Moving Forward

We look forward to all the progress we will make over the next few months towards our 2025 Work Plan. This includes our next Membership event on September 24th talking about stormwater infrastructure and hurricane preparations and our City Builder Award on November 10th to honor Don Mastry of Trenam Law. We look forward to telling you more about these initiatives and others in our next Work Plan update.