Cathie Wood-backed ARK Innovation Center in St. Pete gets Pinellas approval
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 29, 2023

Pinellas County has approved a master lease and operations agreement for ARK Innovation Center, a business incubator in downtown St. Petersburg backed by financier Cathie Wood.

County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the agreement between the Tampa Bay Innovation Center’s nonprofit corporation STAR-TEC and the Pinellas County Industrial Development Authority, which allows the nonprofit to officially take the charge of the space.

The lease for the 45,000-square-foot facility will commence on Oct. 1 and run until Sept. 30, 2033, according to the agreement. STAR-TEC can then request five-year additional terms.

The ARK Innovation Center is under construction at 1101 Fourth St. S in St. Peter’s Innovation district. It will be managed by the Tampa Bay Innovation Center. The ARK Innovation Center topped out in January and is expected to be complete this summer.

Wood, whose Ark Invest moved from New York City to St. Petersburg in 2021, bought the naming rights to the center and will have a presence there.

The center is being built on 3.5 acres of land that were donated by the city. The development team includes Dunedin-based Bandes Construction and Dallas-based The Beck Group.

The facility will feature a business incubator for startups as well as a 2,000-square-foot prototyping lab, a 200-person event center, two classrooms, conference rooms, an AR/VR studio and coworking space.

The incubator project comes from a partnership between the city, Pinellas County, the Tampa Bay Innovation Center and the U.S. Economic Development Authority. The total project costs are approximately $15.87 million, according to the county.

Tampa Bay Innovation Center will be in charge of negotiating and executing licenses, occupancy agreements and subleases for the center. The Pinellas County Industrial Development Authority will provide a total of $400,000 in funding to STAR-TEC over the first three-year period of the agreement for countywide incubation and acceleration services.