New affordable homeownership opportunity breaks ground in South St. Petersburg
Habitat for Humanity, Exact – Shell Dash LLC and City of St. Petersburg partner on 10-unit townhome development.

By Post
Tampa Bay Newswire
Published: Dec 7, 2022

St. Petersburg, FL – On December 6, 2022, Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties in partnership with Exact – Shell Dash LLC and the City of St. Petersburg broke ground on a ten-unit townhome development located on the 16th Street Business Corridor, bordering the Campbell Park Neighborhood.

Mike Sutton, President & CEO of Habitat Pinellas and West Pasco, explains the significance of this day. “The housing crisis that we’re in continues to really kind of amplify the challenges so many families are facing in our community. So today’s a good day. We’re able to put some shovels in the ground and really show this community in South Saint Petersburg that, you know, there’s a great project coming.”

The new development will be exclusively marketed to potential homeowners making less than 80% of the area median income and willing to participate in the Habitat for Humanity program. The townhomes will be two-story three-bedroom, three bathrooms units with a single-car garage.

Through the Habitat program, homebuyers will be provided a 0% interest mortgage and with a meaningful investment by the City each unit will have a maximum sales price capped at $219,000. DuCon Construction will serve as the general contractor for the development and is a state certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE). Construction is slated to be completed by Q3 of 2024.

Habitat Pinellas and West Pasco, recently named the largest Habitat affiliate based on new home builds across the 1,100 US affiliate network, was a natural partner for the City of St. Petersburg. Habitat Homes are sold at no profit and no interest to households who do not qualify for a traditional mortgage. The program prepares homeowner partners to be successful through an education curriculum of 32 classes, from budgeting to home maintenance.

“When you’ve got that intentionality and when you have public private partnerships like we have here, you can make a substantial impact on affordable housing”, said St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch. “We have several projects in this corridor, in this area with Habitat that will, for the first-time bring home ownership opportunities to folks that have been excluded from that for years.”

“Exact Partners and Architects are excited about our partnership with the City of St. Petersburg and Habitat for Humanity”, said developer Bob Mayer. “It has been a longtime coming to provide this affordable new housing to the Southside of St. Petersburg. This truly is a public, private, and non-profit Partnership Model for getting affordable housing to the people of St. Petersburg.”

This unique partnership brings together Habitat’s expertise in affordable homeownership, the Shell Dash team’s years of development experience and DuCon’s residential construction capabilities to execute on the City’s vision of building Housing Opportunities for All. Both the City and the development teams know how hard it is for people to find housing that fits their needs and budget. This development highlights the importance of public/private partnerships and increased collaboration within the affordable housing sector.

All involved are proud to be able to offer three-bedroom townhomes just blocks away from the Historic Gas Plant District site at a maximum purchase price less than half the cost of other new construction in the area.