One of the largest vacant tracts of land in St. Petersburg could soon be developed after the City’s Community Planning & Preservation Commission (CPPC) unanimously approved a zoning change and future land use map amendment that paves the way for a proposed mixed-use development that is set to include new multifamily housing and industrial warehouses.

Located at the northwest corner of Gandy Boulevard and I-275, the 93.38 acre site is owned by Jabil, Inc., a global manufacturing services company, who once envisioned a massive headquarters campus on the site.

In 2010, Jabil worked with the City of St. Petersburg to approve a development agreement for the site which would have included 450,000 square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of light industrial space, and 50,000 square feet of retail space on the site.

Ultimately, Jabil decided to renovate their existing campus, which is located at 10560 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street North and construct a new 190,000-square-foot headquarters building.

Jabil, Inc. is currently under contract to sell 17.91 acres of the site to Greystar Development East, LLC, a subsidiary of Greystar Real Estate Partners, an international real estate developer and manager. Greystar is the largest operator of multifamily apartments in the United States. The acreage under contract by Greystar includes the southernmost portion of the site bound by Gandy Boulevard and 28th Street.

Under a new development agreement, which was also approved on Tuesday, Greystar would be allowed to develop up to 500 multifamily units on the site, for a density of 27.92 units per acre, with the stipulation that 20% of the units would be dedicated to workforce housing restricted to those making under 120% of the area median income.

A site plan of Greystar’s proposed development indicates the project would be garden-style with nine apartment buildings, a clubhouse and office building, along with several smaller garage buildings.

The remaining 75.47 acres would be split between industrial (61.10 acres) and preservation (14.37 acres) uses.  The new development agreement also allows for up to 1,000,000 square feet of industrial uses on the remainder of the site, which could come in the form of light industrial buildings, industrial warehouses, distribution facilities, or lower density office uses. Of that, a minimum of 200,000 square feet of industrial will be required to be constructed prior to or concurrently with the multifamily portion of the project.

Approximately 3,300 jobs could be created as a result of the industrial uses.

To facilitate the new development agreement, the CPPC approved a zoning change for the 17.91 acre portion of the site from Employment Center (EC-1) to Corridor Commercial Suburban (CCS-2) which will be developed with apartments. The remaining site will remain zoned EC-1. The future land use of the acreage would also change from Industrial Limited (IL) to Planned Redevelopment – Commercial (PR-C) to accommodate the proposed multifamily housing use. The future land use map amendment ultimately needs to be approved at the county level to take effect.

Greystar’s proposed new community joins several other new residential developments in St. Pete’s Gateway area including Waterview, a 15-story building with 226 rental units, and Axio at Carillon, a five-story building with 298 units, both of which recently opened at Echelon City Center in Carillon.

Last week, St. Pete Rising reported on a new six-story, 127-unit apartment building proposed for Ibis Walk which is also set to break ground in 2022.

Once the zoning and land use changes are approved by the county later this year, Greystar expect to submit site plan documents to the Development Review Commission. A groundbreaking is expected in the second quarter of 2022.