The city was quietly backing out of a deal to sell that property and instead save it for future stormwater tanks. The council requested that the city do both: Support the Science Center and find other sites to fortify the nearby Northwest Water Northwest Water Reclamation Facility. City staff were asked to update the council on the sale at next week’s meeting.
“We really need a win as a city,” said council member Brandi Gabbard.
Council members took issue with how the Welch administration is handling the matter. They said they were under the impression the sale was going through and took issue with why it has dragged on so long.
“I want to believe there was not an intention of deception,” said council member Gina Driscoll, who requested a report from city staff to force a discussion.
Supporters have secured an early $10 million in federal and state funding for renovations to the Science Center, plus another $5 million in private funding. Architectural drawings and appraisals are complete. All that was left is for the city to sell the property to the St. Petersburg Group. Co-founder Joe Hamilton has proposed dedicating the center to science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics education — known as STEAM — and establishing a center for artificial intelligence.
The unanimous council gave direction to a mayor who has stalled on or failed to land several projects he inherited from his predecessor. Those have included a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium, a Moffitt Cancer Center campus, a new city headquarters and repairs to the downtown marina.
“And to have this important educational resource light extinguished is really disappointing,” said Hamilton, who is also the publisher of the St. Pete Catalyst, which shares content with the Tampa Bay Times.
The Science Center opened in 1959 on Arlington Avenue North downtown. The buildings on its current site went up in 1966, creating an educational experience. People toured the Indian village, watched planetarium shows and learned about alligator safety, hurricane preparation, archaeology and kitchen chemistry.
The center closed in 2014 due to failing finances and job-placement agency CareerSource Pinellas bought the site. Five years later, the city purchased the property because of its proximity to the northwest sewage plant.
After Hurricane Hermine in 2016 dumped heavy rains on the city, 58 million gallons of partially treated sewage was discharged into neighborhoods, across 22nd Avenue North and into nearby Walter Fuller Park. Storm drains dumped it into Boca Ciega Bay.
The city then expanded the footprint of the Northwest plant, adding two wastewater storage tanks north of the Science Center in response to the sewage crisis. Officials later divided the land, separating the Science Center into a separate plot.
Former City Council member Robert Blackmon led the charge to revive the Science Center in 2021. He ran for mayor that same year and lost to Welch, whose administration mulled the future of the Science Center, potentially even as a city-run events space.
The St. Petersburg Group submitted an unsolicited proposal to purchase the property in 2023. After two appraisals, the city and the St. Petersburg Group agreed to a sale price of $1.6 million.
But before the city could sell the land, which is part of its public utility system, the city had to demonstrate to its debt holders that disposing of the property wouldn’t affect the utility and isn’t essential. It hired consultants Wade Trim to study the needs of the sewage system.
The city only needed a one-page document to make that happen. Instead, Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley said he ordered a feasibility study to do due diligence, though it wasn’t required for the sale, in light of last year’s record-breaking hurricanes that led to the shutoff of the city’s two other sewage plants. He said the state in the future may require more regulations on wastewater plants.
“We don’t know when that’s going to happen,” Tankersley said. “Could be five years, could be 10 years.”
The study done this summer found that the Science Center property had the fewest constraints for use as additional wastewater storage needed in heavy downpours. Without that capacity, more discharges are possible.
So now, the Welch administration doesn’t want to sell the 4-acre lot at 7701 22nd Ave. N., though there is no planned sewage plant expansion plan at this time.
Welch did not attend Thursday’s meeting.
“Council’s rationale for moving forward on the Science Center agreement as a higher priority than maximizing our water/wastewater system capacity per the consultant’s recommendations is clear,” he said in a written statement, adding he would take it into consideration.
The city found other nearby areas that could work for stormwater storage, too, such as the brush disposal site on 7750 26th Ave. N. In its presentation, the city said it’d be hard to find another property suitable to be used as a brush site. Because most of the surrounding land is developed, it could cost the city more to find another location.
Another option is a site formerly owned by defense contractor Raytheon Technologies and recently purchased by a self-storage owner and developer. Emails show the city turned down offers to buy the land.
According to the report, the current owner is still open to negotiations. But Aaron Fisch, the city’s director of real estate and property management, said that land comes with too many restrictions.
State Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, has secured state funding for the project four years in a row, totaling $6.8 million. He spoke at Thursday’s meeting about his brother, who learned how to build rockets there as a kid and earned a master’s degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Rouson recently discussed the Science Center with Welch over lunch. Rouson wouldn’t divulge specifics but said he and the mayor “have a difference of opinion at the end of the day about the site.
“I would not have been so supportive had I known previously that the administration would fight this thing,” Rouson said. “But having worked as hard as I did in the budget climate that exists, I really want to see this come to fruition.”
Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist secured $3 million from the federal government for the Science Center in 2021. He remembers visiting the center as an elementary school kid, looking up at all the stars and planets in its planetarium.
“It’s a great thing for young people and a great asset for the community,” he said in an interview.
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