Duplexes proposed in St. Petersburg's Innovation District
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Feb 17, 2023

A local developer wants to build three duplexes in the residential neighborhood across from the upcoming ARK Innovation Center.

The 0.42-acre at 423, 429 and 437 11th Ave. S previously had three duplex buildings on the site. In April 2022, the owner and developer, TRB Development Pinellas, demolished the buildings on the site.

On Feb. 14, the Community Planning and Preservation Commission unanimously approved amending the future land use for the site and changing its zoning, which would begin to pave the way for the development.

The property is within the Brookside Park Subdivision. In the 1990s, the property was granted a special exception approval to allow for the operation of a social service agency for unhoused residents. Since then, multiple social service agencies — including the St. Petersburg Free Clinic — have used the site, and various building alterations were made, according to a staff report.

Nearby are several single-family homes, a 10-unit apartment building, a duplex, the New Frontier Freedom House and the 2.5-acre site of the 45,000-square-foot ARK Innovation Center, which is currently under construction. Most of the site is within the coastal high-hazard area and the 100-year flood plain.

“What is so striking about that area is the eclectic mix of homes and residential stock that you see there,” said Lisa Wannemacher, vice chair of the commission. “There are contemporary homes, there are one-story bungalows, there are new two-story almost two-and-a-half story homes. There are some smaller duplexes. That entire neighborhood is quite diverse in its housing stock, and it really makes that neighborhood so interesting.”

Several of the units were grandfathered into the former code, but because the owner demolished them before a new redevelopment plan was approved, the developer applied to amend the future land use to begin getting a new development approved.

The applicant intends to build three duplexes — totaling six residences — on the site to replace the former structures. Multifamily homes like duplexes have historically been located on the site since the mid-1930s and were permitted by the zoning district until 2007.

“I believe this developer, along with their architect, will create a development that will add to the value of the character and that neighborhood rather than take away,” Wannemacher said. “They are not proposing anything more dense than what has historically been there. I truly believe this new development will be an asset to the neighborhood.”