The long-awaited ARK Innovation Center will officially open next month - creating a first-of-its-kind entrepreneurial hub in Pinellas County.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, Pinellas County Economic Development Director Cynthia Johnson, among leaders from the Tampa Bay Innovation Center, cut a ribbon Monday morning, celebrating the completion of the 45,000-square-foot facility at 1101 4th Street South.

In the coming months, engineers, data scientists and entrepreneurs will fill the center's empty suites, conference rooms, 3D-printing labs, and prototyping studios.

"This state-of-the-art facility is poised to be the birthplace of startups and tech companies that will not only shape the landscape of our city and county but will also contribute to the broader technological advancements for our entire nation," Welch said.

The new facility is operated by the Tampa Bay Innovation Center (TBIC), a non-profit organization serving startups.

TBIC CEO and President Tonya Elmore and Chris Paradies, board member and former chair of the board of directors at the TBIC, initiated conversations with Mayor Welch and other officials about an innovation center concept in the early 2000s.

"The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is concrete, glass and steel," said Paradies.

"In 2008, when Tonya and I had the idea of building a purpose-built incubator that could be the focal point of innovation in the Tampa Bay-St. Pete region, it was a dream of a place that would bring entrepreneurs together to collaborate and share visions and experiences," Paradies recalled.

The local leaders continuously thanked federal partners and Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of ARK Invest.

In 2021, Wood relocated her investment management firm from New York to downtown St. Pete and purchased naming rights for the center in a $2 million deal.

"It [the project] really wouldn't have happened without Cathie Wood ... it [ARK's stamp on the center] just really changed the dynamic of what this project was going to be," Elmore said.

ARK's research team will occupy over 10,000 square feet.

"ARK kind of waltzed in two years ago, attracted by the innovative spirit," Wood said. "We're on to something big here, like a new Bay area."

In addition to ARK planting a flag at the center, Pennsylvania-based Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute (ARM), the nation’s leading robotics and artificial intelligence manufacturing innovation institute, recently announced it would be moving to the center.

Earlier this year, Point Chaud Coffee & Crepes announced it will open its first Florida location inside the ARK Innovation Center. The cafe has three other locations in Washington D.C. and Maryland.

TBIC has not yet disclosed the names of other future tenants.

The nearly $16 million project is backed by $11.3 million of funding from the Federal Economic Development Administration (EDA).

Through Penny for Pinellas dollars, the county provided a local match to the U.S. EDA's grant award. The City of St. Petersburg donated 2.5 acres of land within its Innovation District to bring the project together. General contracting group Bandes Construction broke ground on the facility in 2022.

“Bandes was honored to build a project as transformative as the innovation center,” said Jillian Bandes, Construction Manager with Bandes Construction.

TBIC team members expect the center to generate more than $120 million in economic impact from the estimated 1,265 jobs it will create by the fourth year.

The center will house early-stage companies developing disruptive technologies in the energy, fintech, and artificial intelligence sectors.

"There's been a spark in startup activity unlike anything we've seen in decades," said U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa native and project advocate.

"I watched St. Petersburg and Pinellas grow out of the sleepy beach towns that defined it decades ago. Over time, you saw businesses like Raymond James, Jabil and HSN [Home Shopping Network] expand, but it's always been the small businesses and entrepreneurs that are the backbone of the economy."

For more information on the ARK Innovation Center, visit their website.