Foot Locker's HQ relocation to St. Petersburg appears to be dead
By Breanne Williams and Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Nov 22, 2022

Foot Locker Inc.’s potential headquarters relocation from New York City to St. Petersburg appears to be dead.

Foot Locker’s interest in moving to the Sunshine City went public in October 2021. The city and Pinellas County both approved incentive packages to entice the global retailer to move. But Pinellas County officials have considered the deal, codenamed Project Athena, inactive since late 2021, Cynthia Johnson, director of economic development for Pinellas County, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

If St. Petersburg and Pinellas County officials had been able to strike a deal with Foot Locker, it would have been a watershed moment for the Tampa Bay region. In county documents, Project Athena promised to create 350 jobs with an average annual wage of $120,000 and lease 100,000 square feet of office space. But beyond job creation and capital investment, the deal had cachet — luring a Fortune 500, household name like Foot Locker away from New York City would have cemented St. Pete and Florida’s reputations as places where big business can succeed.

St. Petersburg City Council in October 2021 approved an economic development incentive package worth $475,000 for the project, but a month later, the incentive program lapsed after a referendum to renew it failed by 87 votes. The program was reinstated this year after approximately 60% of voters supported the referendum.

Foot Locker already has a presence in St. Petersburg; supporting positions for the company work out of 140 Fountain Parkway.

Johnson said the county was kept in the loop via a site selector who was working with the company.

“Project Athena was a project that we were actively engaged in with the city of St. Petersburg and the St. Pete EDC,” Johnson said. “The fact that that project has redirected their interest — it was purely based on market conditions and a decision by the company.”

Johnson said the project is currently not active and that the company has not shared with the county if it was planning on moving its headquarters elsewhere.

A Foot Locker representative was not immediately available for comment Monday. J.P DuBuque, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Economic Development Corp., declined comment Monday.

How the deal went down

DuBuque spent two years working with site selectors representing the project before it went public, he told St. Pete City Council in October 2021. By early 2021, the company was rumored in commercial real estate circles to be looking for 75,000 to 100,000 square feet of office space in St. Pete — a very large space requirement by Tampa Bay standards. The majority of office deals in this market are between 10,000 and 20,000 square feet.

Foot Locker was also considering Atlanta and New York City, according to county documents.

“This is a competitive project, but we believe, based upon our conversations with the company, that if this incentive package is approved that we will be in a leadership position in winning this project,” DuBuque told the council.

DuBuque appeared optimistic about the relocation in emails obtained by the Business Journal, even though the company was less than happy with press coverage of its potential move. On Oct. 19, 2021 — eight days after the Business Journal broke the news of Foot Locker’s interest in moving to St. Pete — DuBuque wrote that a representative from commercial real estate firm JLL Inc. had told him “the company is very grumpy over the events of last week. And not certain where they stand on things.”

However, DuBuque wrote, the company had been in touch with some questions about Florida’s capital-intensive tax program, an incentive program that provides an annual credit against the corporate income tax. The credit can be provided for up to 20 years.

“I guess one good thing is that it does not appear that any national press has picked up the story,” DuBuque wrote to representatives from the city, Pinellas County and Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic development organization. “All of that points in a good direction for us.”

He signed off with this: “Thanks to all on this, and keep your fingers crossed that we can pull it across the finish line.”