Celotex-Pridgen Site - Click for Larger Photo

If you’re anything at all like me (and, for your sake, I really hope you’re not, but that’s another story altogether), it drives you crazy to see something big going on and not know what it’s all about!  That’s been the story with me for months as I drive on Dr. ML King Street North, in the neighborhood of 102nd Avenue – right next to the Gateway Crossings Shopping Center where the Publix and the Hooters are located.  There is a huge piece of land there – 21.5 acres – that used to be home to Celotex, a building material manufacturing and testing subsidiary of Jim Walters.  Several months ago, the bulldozers rolled in and razed all of the old buildings on the site.  Now, they’ve graded some of the property and there are huge piles of dirt standing there, awaiting their destiny as a base for something to come.  But what?

I couldn’t stand not knowing any more, so I started researching, and it was actually pretty interesting.  I found documents dating back to 2004, minutes of City of St. Petersburg zoning meetings, discussing plans for this land.  It’s going to be a really big deal!

Here’s what’s in the works:  A multi-use development, not unlike the Carillon development that’s located just a little bit west of this site.  Plans call for 150,000 square feet of office space, 350 apartments, 13,000 square feet of restaurants, 24,400 square feet of retail space, a 12,000 square foot pharmacy with a drive-through, and three parking structures.  Estimated cost of the project is $75 million! 

Celotex-Pridgen Development - Click for Larger Photo

 On developer Grady Pridgen’s web site, there is an artist’s rendering of the development.  I’ve included a snipping of it here, so that you can see what I saw.  In doing my research on this development, I noticed that Mr. Pridgen has received Leeds awards for building and retro-fitting old buildings to be significantly more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.  Although I found no mention of whether such an approach will be taken with this new development, it seems not to be too big a leap of faith to imagine that he will apply such an approach.  Over the coming months, as things progress with this new development, I’ll learn what I can about that topic and will post on it in the future.  But for now, I’ll watch the porgress as I drive by from time to time, and I’ll feel a lot better, knowing what’s going on.  If only I knew what stores and restaurants are going to occupy the space…