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Could the Pinellas Trail become St. Petersburg’s version of the High Line?

Developers are looking at how to refocus neighborhoods to center around one of Tampa Bay’s biggest biking and walking arteries.
 
A rendering of the Trails Crossing project to connect several St. Petersburg districts with the Pinellas Trail under the interstate.
A rendering of the Trails Crossing project to connect several St. Petersburg districts with the Pinellas Trail under the interstate. [ Courtesy of Apogee Real Estate Partners ]
Published Dec. 22, 2021

In Florida’s most densely populated county, the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail cuts through 47 miles spanning from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg.

But it wasn’t always that way. The trail used to be a CSX railroad.

The abandoned railway corridor was converted to a public biking and pedestrian route in 1990, according to Pinellas County. It’s long been a popular trail among residents and tourists, but interest skyrocketed during the pandemic. Usage was up 60 percent in 2020, according to data collected from sensors on the trail.

Now developers are working to tap into the trail’s potential in St. Petersburg, amid a national trend of former railways being repurposed for pedestrian use.

“We [as a community] have not taken into consideration how much of an asset the Pinellas Trail really is,” said John Barkett, a developer with Apogee Real Estate Partners working to connect several neighborhoods within St. Pete to the trail system. “Having seen other areas in the country that have taken advantage, there’s a whole lot more that we can do.”

A rendering of the Trails Crossing project to connect several St. Petersburg districts with the Pinellas Trail under the interstate. [ Courtesy of Apogee Real Estate Partners ]

Trails Crossing, a real estate project Barkett is working on, would convert four blocks of land under Interstate 275 into a park, bringing the Edge District, Kenwood, the Tropicana Field site and the Warehouse Arts District together. It would reach from 1st Avenue North to 3rd Avenue South with a large roundabout meeting point that plugs into the Pinellas Trail.

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Much of that area is currently unused and fenced off.

This project follows in the footsteps of New York City’s High Line, also a former railroad before it opened as a public park in 2009 and then became a tourist destination. Parks have been developed from old railroads or under existing highways in major cities across the country, like Atlanta’s Beltline, Miami’s Underline or Boston’s Underground at Ink Block.

The property under I-275 is owned by the Florida Department of Transportation and Trails Crossing is being proposed as a private-public partnership with the city, Barkett said. He added organizations are willing to fund projects like this because there’s a greater understanding of how highways have segmented downtowns and separated parts of the city, especially within communities of color.

Rendering of how Trails Crossing would look like under Interstate 275 in St. Petersburg. [ Courtesy of Apogee Real Estate Partners ]

While it would be a park, Barkett said there’s opportunities for that part of the trail to be “activated” for business. About 15,000 square feet of retail is being developed east of where Trails Crossing would be, he said. Not only could it promote the local artist community, the area shaded by I-275 has the potential to host events, shipping container storefronts and markets. During the summer, it could offer a reprieve from the heat.

Mill Creek Residential, which is collaborating with Apogee Real Estate Partners, bought the property on 201 17th Street S. in November for $10.3 million, according to county records. Barkett said the plan is to build a 21-story mixed-use tower along the trail with 380 apartments.

Barkett said he hopes projects like these can prove to local leaders the potential of the Pinellas Trail and adjust zoning laws to allow for more business development on the land around it.

“We need to start thinking seriously about our transit solutions before we hit critical mass,” Barkett said. “It’s hard to play catch up.”

The Pinellas Trail is an easy foray into encouraging other modes of travel outside of personal car use since it connects into downtown areas, he said. But there’s much more that can be done regionally to promote safe walking and biking connections now that the pandemic has boosted interest.

Tarpon Springs and Dunedin have done this successfully on a smaller scale, Barkett said.

”Embracing and enhancing the trail has led the effort in making downtown Dunedin a top destination to visit,” said Bob Ironsmith, Dunedin’s economic development and housing director when the city was designated as Florida’s first official “trail town” in 2018.

And it’s continuing to grow. One Tampa-based development group, Founders Hospitality LLC, proposed an 89-unit boutique hotel in downtown Dunedin that will highlight the trail and the city’s walkability. Dunedin’s local planning board voted to approve the application for the Stirling Hotel project on Main Street and Douglas Avenue last month.

Plans for the hotel include more than 4,800 square feet of retail space, 4,400 square for a restaurant and 4,400 for a fitness center on the ground floor, according to city records. There would also be two public courtyards that orient toward the Pinellas Trail and bicycles available for guests.

It’s easier for a place like Dunedin use the trail because it’s a “character town” - a term used to describe small and idyllic cities - originally built as a rail stop, said urban design expert Peter Sechler with GAI Consultants. Dunedin could easily adapt because it has a small Main Street and infrastructure already facing the former tracks.

A few blocks away from the Trails Crossing site in St. Petersburg, many buildings in the Warehouse Arts District face away from the Pinellas Trail, Sechler said.

Renderings from the action plan for the Warehouse Arts District in St. Petersburg to tap into the Pinellas Trail. [ City of St. Petersburg ]

“One issue is that the historic infrastructure of a 150-year-old warehousing area is not set up for pedestrians or people that are there to explore,” Sechler said. The city of St. Petersburg contracted GAI to help plan for the revitalization of the Warehouse Arts District and Deuces Live, a historical business hub for African Americans in St. Petersburg.

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Part of that plan is to build business access around the trail, Sechler said.

“Great cities, whether large or small, one of their real attributes is having shared, publicly-accessible and open space,” Sechler said. “And the buildings and the uses around that address the open space.”

A good example, Sechler said, is New York City’s Bryant Park. Surrounding the park is the New York Public Library, restaurants, retail and kiosks where the park can become a shared space for the community. A more local example may be Straub Park in St. Petersburg and the retail and restaurants across from the waterfront on Beach Drive.

The Pinellas Trail is another way for St. Petersburg to link into more park space, Sechler said.

One advantage of the former warehouses is that many of them have large plots with garage openings, Sechler said, so businesses could reorient the building to have its front face the trail and create an indoor-outdoor environment that has been a big draw for businesses like Three Daughters Brewery, Sechler said.

The trail cuts through the city at an angle. Sechler said it’s surrounded by interesting shaped parcels of land where there could be more parks for the community to share.

“The idea of the plan is a complete reorientation of thinking about how those buildings are being used and how they can celebrate public open space,” Sechler said. “People can come down there to experience the art and culture of the area.”