Side Splitters Comedy Club bringing 250-seat venue to downtown St. Pete

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Side Splitters Comedy Club bringing 250-seat venue to downtown St. Pete

Side Splitters Comedy Club, one of Tampa’s longest running comedy clubs, is expanding to downtown St. Pete with a new modern club at the Sundial shopping center.

After more than 30 years of drawing nationally-touring headliners, as well as local talent and an award-winning open mic, to its original Carrollwood location, Side Splitters has signed a lease to open a 250-seat venue on the second level of the shopping and entertainment center located at 153 2nd Avenue North.

The 5,600-square-foot space, formerly part of FarmTable Cucina, which closed at the end of 2019, will be custom-built from the ground up and is expected to debut by summer 2026.

“The Tampa club was built in 1992, and we had to work with the layout of that building. This will be built from scratch. Although it will be similar, it will take on its own personality,” Side Splitters Owner Brian Thompson said in an interview with St. Pete Rising.

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23-story Gallery Haus apartment tower set to break ground near Tropicana Field in downtown St. Pete

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23-story Gallery Haus apartment tower set to break ground near Tropicana Field in downtown St. Pete

A team of Miami-based developers is preparing to bring a new wave of residential living to downtown St. Pete.

LD&D, in partnership with IGEQ and Black Salmon, has finalized plans for Gallery Haus, a 23-story, $115 million apartment tower that will rise at 155 17th Street South, directly across from Tropicana Field and along the Pinellas Trail.

The development will contain 254 apartments, more than 10,000 square feet of amenities, and 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

LD&D purchased the 0.77-acre site from Apogee Real Estate Partners in late 2023 for just over $9 million. Apogee had previously secured site plan approval for a similar tower with 204 units in 2022.

Gallery Haus is an expansion of LD&D’s “Haus” portfolio, which includes Wynwood Haus in Miami’s Wynwood Arts District and Williamsburg Haus in Brooklyn.

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Bob’s Side Piece to open in original Dead Bob’s location in west St. Pete

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Bob’s Side Piece to open in original Dead Bob’s location in west St. Pete

A pair of well-known St. Pete restaurateurs are teaming up to introduce a new neighborhood eatery that will offer old school Italian sandwiches, pizza, and more.

Bob’s Side Piece will open in early 2026 at 6716 Central Avenue, the original home of Dead Bob’s.

The new restaurant is a collaboration between Ben Scherlis, owner of the beloved local hangout Dead Bob’s, and Jim Breazeale, owner of DeLosa’s Pizzeria in John’s Pass Village on Madeira Beach.

As Scherlis prepares to reopen Dead Bob’s this Thursday at 6475 Central Avenue, he saw potential in keeping the old space alive.

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Several developments move forward along The Deuces corridor in south St. Pete

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Several developments move forward along The Deuces corridor in south St. Pete

After years of promises to revive 22nd Street South, the City of St. Pete is finally making progress on projects expected to bring new life back to The Deuces.

From the 1940s through the 1960s, 22nd Street South, from 2nd Avenue to 18th Avenue, was the heart of St. Pete’s Black community, filled with thriving businesses, music clubs, and restaurants.

But after I-275 cut through the area in the mid 1970s, the busy corridor slowly fell into decline.

Now, with a growing pipeline of new developments on the horizon, the Deuces is beginning to show signs of revival.

At a community meeting this week at the Enoch Davis Center, city officials gave updates on several ongoing projects.

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82-unit affordable apartment community Wimbish Court proposed for south St. Pete

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82-unit affordable apartment community Wimbish Court proposed for south St. Pete

A vacant 1.16-acre site near Bartlett Park in south St. Pete could soon become an 82-unit affordable housing community.

The $33 million development, called Wimbish Court, has been proposed by Orlando-based Archway Partners for 2025 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Street South.

Archway is under contract to purchase the property for $1.875 million, but the project will only move forward if it secures 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), according to Paul Nudelman, Development Partner at Archway Partners.

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program is a federal tax incentive created by Congress in 1986 to encourage private developers to build affordable housing.

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New 52,000-square-foot expansion proposed for St. Pete’s Maritime and Defense Technology Hub

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New 52,000-square-foot expansion proposed for St. Pete’s Maritime and Defense Technology Hub

More marine-based startups and private defense firms may soon find a new home along St. Pete’s waterfront.

City and business leaders are spearheading an effort to expand the Maritime and Defense Technology Hub, known locally as The Hub, which opened in 2022 at 450 8th Avenue SE in a city-owned building at the Port of St. Petersburg, just south of Albert Whitted Airport.

The Hub has quickly become a cornerstone for marine science, defense, and technology innovation, now fully occupied by companies such as Saildrone, which deploys autonomous ocean vehicles from St. Pete to map and monitor Florida’s coastal waters, and Pole Star Defense, which uses maritime intelligence technology to track and prevent threats at sea.

Plans for a second facility, dubbed Hub 2.0, call for developing the surface parking lot directly west of the current Hub into a 52,000-square-foot research and collaboration center.

The expansion would provide a home for additional startups, government partners, and academic institutions focused on marine technology, coastal resiliency, and defense innovation.

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$33 million Tierra Verde Marina redevelopment revised again, could become Florida’s second-largest boat storage facility

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$33 million Tierra Verde Marina redevelopment revised again, could become Florida’s second-largest boat storage facility

A Tampa-based developer has refined its plans to transform the aging seven-acre Tierra Verde Marina property, adding new public amenities and retail while addressing concerns from nearby residents.

Since the proposal was first introduced in March, Greenleaf Capital has made several key revisions to its $33 million, two-phase redevelopment at 100 Pinellas Bayway South.

The project, which was originally slated to go before St. Pete’s Development Review Commission (DRC) in October, has been rescheduled to December to accommodate additional design and a traffic analysis.

One of the community’s main concerns was losing the existing retail space at the marina. In response, the developer has added 2,400 square feet of new retail space to the latest plan, which could be divided into up to three storefronts and will be included in Phase 1 of construction.

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Great Explorations Children’s Museum plans new Discovery Center with focus on STEAM education

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Great Explorations Children’s Museum plans new Discovery Center with focus on STEAM education

After nearly four decades of inspiring young minds, Great Explorations Children’s Museum is dreaming bigger.

The beloved St. Petersburg institution, located at 1925 4th Street North next to Sunken Gardens, is searching for a larger home to keep pace with its expanding programs, growing preschool, and community impact.

Founded in 1986 as The Hands-On Museum, Great Explorations has evolved into a 24,000-square-foot center for imagination and discovery.

Children can shop in a mini grocery store, role-play as doctors, build, tinker, and experiment, all while learning through play.

In 2013, Angeline Howell joined the museum as its CEO.

A year later, the museum became the first mid-sized children’s museum in the country to earn accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, an honor that few children’s museums have achieved.

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Melt n Dip dessert lounge coming to former Rollbotto space in downtown St. Pete

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Melt n Dip dessert lounge coming to former Rollbotto space in downtown St. Pete

A new dessert café is on its way to downtown St. Pete.

Melt n Dip, a dessert chain known for waffles, crepes, and gelato, plans to open at 221 1st Street North at Plaza Tower near Sundial and Beach Drive.

The new shop will occupy a 2,300-square-foot space that previously housed Rollbotto, a sushi restaurant that opened in 2012, closed in May 2024 after more than a decade in business.

Harrison Gault and Jay Billings of Commercial Partners Realty represented the tenant, while Kevin Yeager, also of Commercial Partners Realty, represented the landlord.

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Developer buys more land on Salt Creek as investment now tops $59 million

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Developer buys more land on Salt Creek as investment now tops $59 million

Clearwater-based real estate firm Prometheus Partners has once again expanded its portfolio along Salt Creek in St. Pete.

The company, which has now spent $59 million acquiring over 15 acres in recent years, quietly acquired two more industrial properties just south of downtown as part of its ongoing effort to assemble a large swath of contiguous land in the Old Southeast neighborhood.

According to property records, Prometheus purchased the 3.4-acre site at 333 16th Avenue South, the 57,000-square-foot former home of Captain’s Fine Foods, for $7.5 million on Monday.

Last Tuesday, the company acquired the 0.48-acre property at 205 15th Avenue Southeast for $2 million. The site includes a 7,000-square-foot warehouse currently occupied by Universal Stenciling and Marking Systems.

Both sites are zoned IC (Institutional Center), which is intended for public and semi-public uses such as hospitals, universities, utilities, and government facilities.

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