St. Pete approves new electric bike share program for downtown St. Pete

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St. Pete approves new electric bike share program for downtown St. Pete

On Thursday, St. Pete City Council unanimously approved an agreement that will bring up to 500 shared electric bicycles to downtown St. Petersburg. The program will replace St. Pete’s existing bike share program that commenced in 2016. 

St. Petersburg’s current bike share program is operated by CycleHop under the Coast Bike Share brand. The program began in 2016 with the City’s purchase of 300 blue pedal bikes and 30 bike share hubs.

St. Pete’s bike share system saw great success in the early years of the program; however, in late 2020, with the introduction of electric scooters to downtown St. Pete, usage of the bike share system began to decline as riders opted to use electric scooters over pedal bikes.

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40-unit condo building Domus Urbana reaches completion on 3rd Avenue South in downtown St. Pete

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40-unit condo building Domus Urbana reaches completion on 3rd Avenue South in downtown St. Pete

A mid-rise condominium building has wrapped up construction on 3rd Avenue South in downtown St. Petersburg.

Domus Urbana, a 40-unit development at 644 3rd Avenue South, recently began move-ins and the sales team has completed closings on roughly half of the condominium residences. Closing on the remaining units is expected in the coming weeks.

Domus Urbana was developed by NJR Companies. The development was exclusively announced on St. Pete Rising in August 2020.  Construction on Domus Urbana began mid-2021 and, later that year, the developer announced the project had sold out.

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Plant Love Ice Cream to lay down roots in Gulfport

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Plant Love Ice Cream to lay down roots in Gulfport

“Plant love and watch it grow.” That’s the mantra at Plant Love Ice Cream, a 100% vegan, zero waste, and community driven vegan ice cream shop in downtown St. Pete.

Since its debut four years ago in the EDGE District, the locally owned creamery has won the hearts of locals and visitors alike thanks to their made-in-house vegan ice cream that’s so good you’d swear it’s not vegan.

Last year, St. Petersburg’s Plant Love Ice Cream was rated the best vegan ice cream shop in the United States and the 3rd best in the world according to Happy Cow, the country’s largest database for vegan restaurants and recipes.

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20-story apartment building Modera St. Petersburg tops out in downtown St. Pete

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20-story apartment building Modera St. Petersburg tops out in downtown St. Pete

A milestone has been reached on a new mixed-use apartment building under construction in downtown St. Petersburg.

Modera St. Petersburg, a 20-story apartment building being developed by Mill Creek Residential, has topped out. A topping out ceremony, whether official or informal, typically celebrates the time the last structural beam is put into place.

The building has reached a height of 206 feet and will feature 383 rental units and 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space.

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Rose's Coffee Bar to debut inside the upcoming Moxy Hotel in the EDGE District

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Rose's Coffee Bar to debut inside the upcoming Moxy Hotel in the EDGE District

With new options popping up everywhere from the Central Arts District to South St. Pete, the Sunshine City’s coffee culture is thriving.

In early 2024, a new coffee shop will join the EDGE District. Rose’s Coffee Bar will be located on the ground floor of the Moxy Hotel by Marriott, which is currently under construction at 1234 Central Avenue. The new hotel will also include a rooftop bar with a 1960s retro vibe, Sparrow, when it debuts next year.

The boutique hotel will be part of the 1.6-acre Edge Collective being brought to life by Wurzak Hotel Group, PTM Partners and DoveHill Capital Management. Sarasota-based Kellogg & Kimsey is the general contractor.

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Chef Chris Ponte’s modern Italian restaurant OLIVIA coming to downtown St. Pete

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Chef Chris Ponte’s modern Italian restaurant OLIVIA coming to downtown St. Pete

Chris Ponte launched his first restaurant, Café Ponte, in Clearwater in 2002. He quickly made a name for himself in Tampa Bay thanks to an extraordinary trail-blazing New American menu and impeccable service. However, after an 18-year run, Ponte decided to shutter the iconic fine dining restaurant citing a combination of COVID-19 issues and a difficult lease renegotiation.

A past nominee for the highly prestigious James Beard Foundation Award, Ponte had already taken his talents to Tampa, opening On Swann in the city’s Hyde Park Village in 2016 and then OLIVIA, a modern Italian restaurant, in South Tampa in 2019.

More recently, he, along with his two sons, JT and Andy Mahoney, and his wife, Michelle, launched a new version of Café Ponte, simply called Ponte, at the recently opened Midtown Tampa mixed-use development. They are also a partner in Bare Naked Kitchen, a fast-casual restaurant concept with locations in South Tampa and Tallahassee.

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Toy and collectible shop Cultösaurus moving to Central Avenue

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Toy and collectible shop Cultösaurus moving to Central Avenue

Cultösaurus is in the process of relocating from 269 16th Street North to 529 Central Avenue, the former location of RockShop, a jewelry store that features hand-crafted works created by owner Carlos Lopez, the brother of Cultösaurus owner T.J. Lopez.

The move gives Cultösaurus, a store that specializes in a wide range of toys, books, art, and collectible items, a more visible presence in downtown St. Petersburg’s booming Central Avenue corridor. But it won’t happen right away, even though the 16th Street location is scheduled to shutter in the coming days.

“We have a few weeks to go before we finally move into the new place at 529 Central,” Lopez writes in an email to St. Pete Rising. “It’s been a long process, but we are making progress.”

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Intimate wine bar and bottle shop to open on 5th Street in downtown St. Pete

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Intimate wine bar and bottle shop to open on 5th Street in downtown St. Pete

An intimate wine bar is coming to downtown St. Petersburg in May, when the Cork Room is set to open on the ground floor of 357 5th Street South, a five-story, 25-unit apartment building that opened last year.

The $5 million development featured one retail space on the corner 5th Street and 4th Avenue South which was provided a perfect space for a small wine bar. Owner John Harr previously opened The Cork Room on Davis Islands in Tampa. Harr says the St. Pete version will be similar in many ways.

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Tampa Bay's first Caribou Coffee to open on Central Avenue in downtown St. Pete

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Tampa Bay's first Caribou Coffee to open on Central Avenue in downtown St. Pete

Banyan Café, which recently closed at 701 Central Avenue next to the Morean Arts Center, is being replaced by a Caribous Coffee franchise, according to a report by I Love the Burg.  

Based in Minnesota, Caribou Coffee was founded in 1992 and has expanded across the country, with over 700 locations, mostly in the Midwest.

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St. Pete City Council approves 86-unit affordable housing project in Disston Heights

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St. Pete City Council approves 86-unit affordable housing project in Disston Heights

After hours of public comment from local residents, many of whom were opposed to the project, St. Petersburg’s City Council approved a site plan review application for an 86-unit affordable housing development on 22nd Avenue North.

City Council was tasked with looking at the merits of the project, which satisfied all the city’s requirements.

City staff recommended approving the development and City Council’s vote was unanimous.

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