South St. Pete’s Tangerine Plaza redevelopment approved for 186 affordable apartments and a grocery store
/The anchor retail space at Tangerine Plaza has been vacant for eight years. Before that, Walmart Neighborhood Market and Sweetbay Supermarket occupied the space | Google Maps
The long-awaited redevelopment of Tangerine Plaza in South St. Pete is finally starting to move forward, bringing hope for two things Midtown residents have been lacking for years: affordable housing and a grocery store.
The City of St. Pete recently approved a plan to redevelop the 3.6-acre city-owned site at 1794 22nd Street South into a mixed-use project with 186 income-restricted apartments and 10,000 square feet of commercial space, which will include a grocery store.
The approval came under Florida’s Live Local Act, which requires cities to sign off on qualifying affordable housing projects without a public hearing or appeal process.
The redevelopment is being led by the Sugar Hill Group, which includes Rev. Louis Murphy Sr. of Mount Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, Roy Binger of Binger Financial Services, and Oliver Gross of New Urban Development.
Tangerine Plaza is located on a 3.6-acre city-owned site at 1794 22nd Street South | Google Maps
The site plan approval follows the development and lease agreement finalized last year between the Sugar Hill Group and the City of St. Petersburg.
Under the terms, the City will lease the property to Sugar Hill for 75 years at $100,000 per year. Once construction is complete, the developers will have the option to purchase the site for $1.5 million.
The agreement also requires the developers to secure a letter of commitment from a grocery tenant and finalize the project’s financing by December 31, 2025.
St. Pete Rising reached out to the development team for an update, but no one was available for comment.
The newly approved plans call for two four-story, L-shaped apartment buildings: a 72-unit building and a larger 114-unit building. The unit mix will include 58 one-bedrooms, 91 two-bedrooms, and 37 three-bedrooms.
A site plan of the apartments, commercial buildings, and parking | Vickstrom engineering services
At least 115 of the 186 apartments will be reserved for families earning 80% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI), with most set aside for those at 60% AMI or below. The remaining 71 units will be available to households earning up to 120% of the AMI.
The project will also contain two 5,000-square-foot buildings fronting 22nd Street South.
In addition to housing and retail, the redevelopment will include community gathering spaces, open green areas, and an artwork component that “reflects the neighborhood's culture,” according to the application.
A total of 188 parking spaces will be provided across the site.
The project will also incorporate energy-efficient construction, water-saving features, and convenient transit access to help reduce its environmental impact.
The Sugar Hill Group has enlisted local firms Wannemacher Jensen Architects, George F. Young, and Vickstrom Engineering Services, along with Urban Farmers Inc., to bring the project to life.
The project is expected to cost roughly $70.1 million, funded by a mix of public loans, tax credit equity, debt, and developer equity.
Construction is projected to take 18 to 20 months once it begins, though a groundbreaking date has not been announced.
When Tangerine Plaza opened in 2005, the shopping center was intended to help revitalize an area long plagued by blight and crime.
Anchored by SweetBay Supermarket, city leaders also hoped it would finally bring basic amenities to the Midtown neighborhood, which at the time had none, not even a grocery store.
SweetBay lasted eight years before closing in 2013, only to be replaced by Walmart Neighborhood Market, which shut down just three years later in 2017.
Tangerine Plaza was constructed in 2005 and intended to help revitalize an area long plagued by blight and crime | Google Maps
Since then, Midtown residents have spent the past eight years without a local grocer. For many in the community, it represents the fulfillment of decades of promises to restore essential services to an area that has long been overlooked.
If the Sugar Hill Group can deliver on its vision, South St. Pete will gain not just new affordable housing, but also the grocery store that residents have been waiting on since Tangerine Plaza first broke ground nearly 20 years ago.
