Dali Museum Expansion

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An expansion of St. Petersburg’s Dali Museum received a boost this morning with the approval of funding by Pinellas County’s Board of County Commissioners.

In May, the Pinellas County Tourist Development Council (TDC) gave its blessing to use $34 million in Tourist Development Taxes (TDT) for a major expansion of the Salvador Dali Museum in downtown St. Petersburg. The preliminary approval by the TDC required final approval of the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners.

County staff recommended partially funding the request with $25.2 million, an increase of $7.7 million from a prior funding commitment of $17.5 million the museum originally submitted in 2019.

After our world-famous beaches, the Dali Museum is one of the largest attractions in Pinellas County and it proudly calls downtown St. Petersburg home.

The museum boasts the world's largest collections of Dalí's works outside of the artist’s hometown of Figueres, Spain.

Since opening in its current building in 2011, the Dali Museum has welcomed millions of visitors and has hosted thousands of community events.

While the museum is a St. Pete success story, the Dali must continue to innovate to attract world-class traveling exhibits and provide a cutting-edge guest experience.

One of Pinellas County’s biggest tourism draws, the Dalí Museum, has submitted a capital projects funding request to the county’s Tourist Development Council in hopes of receiving $17.5 million in public funding to construct a $38.6 million expansion. Since opening in its current location in 2011, the Dali Museum has drawn between 360,000 and 450,000 visitors per year, over 75% of whom are from outside the area. The Dalí Museum is the largest single-artist museum in the United States and is the most-visited art museum in Florida. 

But the museum has bigger plans for the future. They want to expand to accommodate 50% more visitors and they’re estimating the proposed expansion will bring in an additional 900,000 visitors over a ten year period. The expansion would consist of three components — a new digital Dali permanent exhibit, community & education space, and a parking garage...