Pinellas County takes next steps toward creating ‘county campus’
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 15, 2023

Pinellas County may soon be pursuing building a new office campus and redeveloping or selling its existing properties in downtown Clearwater.

Commissioners listened to a presentation detailing the cost to remain in the 14 buildings currently utilized by the county during a work session on Aug. 31. In total, it would cost approximately $146 million to fulfill the required maintenance in the existing facilities, according to a 400-page report analyzing the current sites.

Assistant County Administrator Kevin Knutson told commissioners if a new campus was built, the county could reduce its total square footage from 568,704 square feet to roughly 317,500 square feet. In the presentation, Knutson told commissioners the overall cost of building and occupying a new facility would be “far less” than continuing to occupy the existing buildings.

Chair Janet Long said the county has been discussing the cost of renovating existing buildings since she joined the commission over a decade ago.

“Regardless of what you do to try to renovate or bring things up to current code or standards, if you put diamonds on a pig, it’s still a pig,” Long said. “Keep that in mind as we go forward and just think about, ‘How long do you want to kick this thing down the road before we finally realize something needs to change?’ Everything else in the world is changing, the way we do business is changing, and a lot of things we used to do 11 years ago, we don’t do anymore.”

Costs for potential Pinellas County project

Projected construction costs for a new headquarters facility range from approximately $263.99 million to $333.39 million. The breakdown was $81 million in 50-year total occupancy costs for the new facility or $258 million in 50-year total occupancy costs for the existing facilities.

Estimates show the revenue that could be generated from redeveloped Clearwater properties ranges from $62 million to $83 million, plus a future tax revenue of $133 million.

The county may sell some of its existing properties or redevelop them. For example, the site at 315 Court, 324 and 400 S Ft. Harrison Ave. could be transformed into hotels and apartments while more than likely retaining the historic former courthouse.

Pinellas County staff will begin a detailed design with site planning while looking for property with a minimum of 6 acres for a potential “county campus.” They anticipate building three office facilities on a combined site. The goal would be to build a 67,000-square-foot development services building first. The county administrator will begin searching for a final site and will bring more information and options to the board soon.

County Administrator Barry Burton told commissioners this was a “real opportunity” to look at the next generation for these buildings.

“Our recommendation is this is both a cost-effective decision on moving to new buildings based upon what we’ve seen and a huge economic redevelopment opportunity for the city of Clearwater,” Burton told commissioners. “We think on the totality, it makes sense to move forward. We’ll get you the answers you requested, and you’ll be approving a contract that will move to this next phase that’s going to be much more detailed.”