Tenants, developers interested in former Raytheon site in St. Petersburg
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jul 27, 2015

A St. Louis company is considering multifamily, retail and mixed-use development for the former Raytheon Co. manufacturing site in St. Petersburg. Commercial Development Company Inc. said Friday that it has closed on the 29-acre site at 1501 72nd St. N., which was home to a 500,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Raytheon acquired the site in 1995 and consolidated the factory operations on another site in 1999.

Despite a location in the heart of a densely populated infill area, sandwiched between the Azalea Park neighborhoods and Tyrone Square Mall, the site has lain fallow for years because of environmental issues. CDC said those have been remediated and that the site is safe to be redeveloped.

"Raytheon's aggressive remediation efforts have gone beyond those typically undertaken at legacy industrial sites,” Tim Biggs, senior geologist at EnviroAnalytics Group LLC, a corporate affiliate of CDC, said in a statement.

"The site underwent cutting edge treatments that quickly and dramatically improved the condition of the soil and groundwater.”

Raytheon will continue to operate a groundwater treatment and recovery system on the site, which it has done since 2014.

Joe Lieser and Mike Heretick of Vector Commercial Real Estate represented CDC in the transaction. JLL represented Raytheon.