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07/02/07 The St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership Looks to the Future in Affordable Housing
Since its inception in
1962, The St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership has participated in redevelopment
investments valued at over $1 billion in our great city and continues to
fulfill its purpose to promote business growth and redevelopment in
downtown St. Petersburg. The Partnership has engaged a variety of entities in
promoting downtown investments such as office buildings, entertainment/
hotel/ retail establishments, cultural institutions, the Major League
Baseball stadium, and USF St. Petersburg.
The St. Petersburg
Downtown Partnership is now ready to embark on a different task –
Affordable Housing for Educators. The Euclid Center, formerly an elementary
school built in 1925 located on 10th Avenue North, is an
under-utilized two-acre parcel of land that could provide many rewards as
an Affordable Housing project.
The Partnership
envisions redeveloping the building into nine three bedroom, two bath condominium
units. It also plans to add 14 town homes on the two-acre site consisting
of three bedroom, two bath with two car garage units. Initial unit prices
would range from $125,000 to $170,000. “It would provide for 23 affordable
housing ownership opportunities for educators in our community, which is a
step in the right direction”, stated Don Shea – President & CEO of the
Downtown Partnership.
The creation of a
community land trust is key for the development project to work with the Pinellas County School District. The two-acre parcel would be donated by the school district
to the community land trust which reserves the redeveloped property for
educators only to obtain a piece of homeownership in their community.
The Partnership would
receive fee income for developing and managing the project under the trust
agreement. “This is a good affordable housing pilot project for the land
trust,” Shea said. “It will create housing while creating income and it’s a
great use of under-utilized land for the neighborhood.”
If all goes as planned,
the land trust and the Euclid project could be a win-win for the Partnership.
The project would provide the Partnership a needed revenue source of $3,000
to $5,000 per unit that will offset reduced funding from the city and
county. In turn, the partnership’s project will provide a real benefit to
the education community and surrounding Euclid/St. Paul’s neighborhood.
Click Here
to learn more about The St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership and the
invaluable services it has provided our community over the past 45 years.
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