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City Council approves new job creation incentive program
On April 6, City Council approved a new high wage job creation program for businesses in the city's target industry clusters: Marine & Life Sciences, Specialized Manufacturing, Financial Services, Data Analytics, and Creative Arts & Design.
The
Grow Smarter Job Creation and Talent Attraction Program, geared towards companies with 49 employees or less, will provide awards to businesses that hire new employees at salaries above Pinellas County's average wage. Award levels vary based on the jobs' salaries and there is an additional bonus for hiring St. Petersburg residents or residents of the South St. Petersburg CRA. To find out more, check out the
program overview and view a copy of the
application.
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City launches 2017 South St. Petersburg CRA Grant Program
The City of St. Petersburg is launching the 2017 cycle of its "South St. Petersburg CRA Grant Program" to help support
private investment in the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area (CRA). The CRA Grant Program was created in
2015 as part of the
city's innovative, 30-year revitalization plan for South St. Pete
designed to help boost private investment in commercial and multifamily residential development in South St. Petersburg.
The CRA is generally located between Fourth St. and 49th St., from Second Ave. N. to 30th Ave S.
Click here
to see the CRA boundaries
.
There are five programs available through which interested parties can apply:
Business Development (~$400,000 recommended budget)
Commercial Revitalization Program (~$50,000 recommended budget)
Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization (~$122,000 budget)
The city will begin taking CRA grant applications on May 8, 2017, with a deadline of 5 p.m. on June 16, 2017, for receipt of applications. (Dates subject to change). Applications must be delivered to the Planning and Economic Development Department, which is located on the 9th floor of the Municipal Services Center at One 4th Street North in Downtown St. Petersburg.
To learn more about the grant process and to find a list of grant workshop dates, visit the South St. Petersburg CRA webpage here.
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Port St. Pete's Food Truck Rallies draw huge crowds
Port St. Pete continues to see great success with the Port Food Truck Rallies. The last rally on March 17th was over the top with
2,000+ attendees. Cars were lined up from the Port on 8th Ave SE, around the corner down 1st Street S and past the Mahaffey Theater trying to get into the event!
The next food truck rally, the St. Petersburg Seafood & Sweets Festival, will be
Friday, April 21st. USFSP parking lots will be open and staffed as another big turn-out is expected. Food trucks will be expanded into the lot east of the terminal building to provide more room to roam. This month marks 2 years since the Port started hosting regular food truck rallies and April's event will be the 19th.
Additionally, as of April 1st, Port St. Pete turned over the Port Terminal Building to the Marine Discovery Center. The center plans to open late summer/early fall in time for the new school year. For more information, click
here to read Port St. Pete's April Newsletter.
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USA Today ranks St. Pete as one of "five underrated food cities on the East Coast"
USA Today named St. Pete as a top 5 underrated food city on the East Coast along with Waltham, MA, Baltimore, MD, Raleigh, NC, and Providence, RI. Local favorites highlighted include The Mill, Sea Salt, Locale, Z Grille, Il Ritorno, Brick & Mortar, Red Mesa, and Iberian Rooster. Check out the full list here.
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#BurgBiz Spotlight on Funktionhouse Urban Lumber & Furnishings
Meet Zoë, co-owner of Funktionhouse Urban Lumber & Furnishings - creating one-of-a-kind, quality home furnishings using urban trees cut down in St. Pete. Owners, Zoë + Robert, consider themselves craftsman and furniture makers, but they are more than that. They are visionaries, artists and sustainability leaders. These beautiful trees are salvaged by working with local arborists, home-owners, and municipalities using trees that otherwise would have been firewood or landfill delivered to their on-site milling yard.
"One of my customers had to have a Mango Tree removed from their front yard, but wanted to keep a 'piece' of the tree with their family. They had the tree delivered to our space, and we crafted a beautiful dining room table from the trunk of the tree. Every piece of wood has a story to tell, so our philosophy is to let the wood speak for itself."
(Funktionhouse is open for tours on 2nd Saturdays, but otherwise by appointment only).
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TEC Garage welcomes 5 new clients
TEC Garage
, an i
ncubator and coworking entrepreneurial center o
perated by
Tampa Bay Innovation Center in downtown St. Petersburg
, added five new clients.
"We're consistently impressed with the quality of our new clients," says Tonya Elmore, president of Tampa Bay Innovation Center. "We look forward to providing them with the coaching, mentoring, networking and other services that will help them accelerate the growth of their businesses."
TEC Garage's newest clients are:
- AgileMinder, Inc., Mark McDonnell, founder and CEO: AgileMinder helps companies and individuals achieve improved performance and greater happiness with their Software as a Service featuring "The Emoji Scale."
- Central Digital Publishing, Richard DeSimine, owner: Originally conceived out of the founder's frustration at not being able to solve a cryptogram, WordPlays.com went online in 1999 and now offers a variety of word games and word game solver tools.
- Cohesion Education, Inc., Jim Szewc, CEO: Cohesion Education is an online platform for families wanting to proactively contribute to the educational success of their child.
- ELinq, DeShaun Johnson, founder & CEO: With a focus on mentoring students, ELinq gives pairs students with other students and mentors and provides an easy to use channel for students to reach out to mentors and peers for assistance.
- Oakhurst Signs, Josh Buttitta, CEO & president: Oakhurst Signs works with apartment management companies, builders and owners across the country to design, manufacture, permit and install full or partial sign packages.
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REUNIONCare's Caregiver Accelerator Program starts April 20
REUNIONCare, based out of The Innovation Lab @ Poynter, offers a
Caregiver Accelerator program which starts
April 20th. If you are a caregiver or aspire to create a business that supports caregiving services, technologies, or products, you may be interested in this valuable workshop sponsored by
AARP. With an aging population, today's
demands for caregiving services and products outweigh the supply available. In fact, the caregiver marketplace is expected to reach $72 billion by 2020.
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ArtsXchange Hard Hat Celebration on April 27
After two years consolidating its vision, rallying community support, and fundraising, the Warehouse Arts District Association (WADA) has broken ground on its signature project - the ArtsXchange. This 50,000 SF facility will create affordable art studios and educational space in the Warehouse Arts District at 515 22nd Street S. The ArtsXchange will be an amazing resource for the City of St. Petersburg, local artists, and the community at large.
On
Thursday, April 27th, 4:30-7:00 pm, WADA invites the community to join them at a "Hard Hat" reception and fundraiser featuring remarks from Mayor Rick Kriseman, tours of the construction site, live music, and an exhibition by incoming
ArtsXchange artists. RSVP at
www.whereartismade.com or contact
info@whereartismade.com for more details.
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Upcoming Events & Opportunities
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April 20-23
Various Locations
April 21, 6-9 pm
Port St. Pete, 250 8th Ave N
April 22-23
Vinoy Park
April 26, 4-7 pm
SPC Seminole Campus, 9200 113th Street N
April 27, 4:30-7 pm
515 22nd St S
April 27-30
Various downtown locations
May 1-5
Various downtown locations
May 2, 5:30-8 pm
Staybridge Suites, 940 5th Ave S
May 8-9
Hilton Carillon Park
Mahaffey Theater
Special note:
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Have a development update, project announcement, or success
story to share?
Contact Briana Ozor, 727.893.7784.
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City of St. Petersburg
Economic Development Division
P.O. Box 2842
St. Petersburg, FL 33731
800.874.9026 (toll free)
727.893.7100 (phone)
727.892.5465 (fax)
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