When the vision for Commerce Park was first unveiled in 2007, it filled many residents with hope. Hope for economic development and jobs along St. Pete’s 22nd Street South corridor, which is home to the Deuces, a historic African-American entertainment and business district. Commerce Park was originally envisioned as a 13-acre business park that once promised to bring high paying manufacturing jobs on land assembled by a loan from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

Over the last decade, delays and setbacks have dimmed that original hope. Community leaders grew tired of hearing excuses from those involved as to why the project kept getting postponed. While Downtown St. Pete and the nearby Warehouse Arts District and EDGE District were teeming with new development — Commerce Park sat still.