St. Pete to break ground on new sanitation facility
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 7, 2022

St. Petersburg will break ground on a new 18,600-square-foot sanitation facility that will replace two aging buildings.

City council approved the approximately $14 million proposal on Thursday from J. Kokolakis Contracting Inc., which was selected to build the facility in February 2020. In 2020, the council approved an agreement with the company for pre-construction services for $56,696.

Thursday’s vote approved the construction costs for the two-story facility.

The new sanitation building will be on the site of the existing sanitation property at 20th Avenue North and 28th Street North. According to city documents, the development will “will consolidate administrative and operational functions in a single facility to serve the needs of the department.”

The building will have office space, meeting rooms, lockers and showers, a second-floor sub-Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and rooftop solar panels.

The two existing buildings will remain operational during construction. The new facility will be built on the existing parking lot so remote parking will be needed during construction. The existing buildings are approximately 50 years old; once the new facility is operational, they will be demolished.

The solar planned for the location will be both on the roof and over a canopy in part of the parking lot. The total solar capacity for the systems is 155 kilowatts, which is expected to offset the total electrical needs of the building.

The schedule going forward is for construction to commence in November 2022 with the project being completed by December 2023.

“It’s a beautiful building, an exciting project, well deserved, long overdue,” Gina Driscoll, council chairwoman, said. “Moving forward, I’m really excited about it, and I can’t wait to see the completion of a building that our hardworking sanitation team truly deserves.”