St. Pete College invests in St. Peterburg's midtown

The future looks brighter for the mid-town area of downtown St. Petersburg with the purchase of two large buildings by St. Petersburg College (SPC). The $1.2 million investment has been years in the making, and aims to help reinvigorate the struggling neighborhood by providing scholarships and economic opportunity to public housing residents.

“The purchases will help stabilize the neighborhood,” says Bill Law, President of SPC since 2010.

Law intends to turn both structures into community resources for the area, which is seeing a rebirth of economic activity. One of the buildings, currently known as the Cecil B. Keene Center for Achievement, is a 10,556-square-foot structure located at 22^nd Street South; the other an 11,136-square-foot gymnasium at 1201 22^nd Street South. Both were previously owned by the St. Petersburg Housing Authority.

As for plans for the future of the two buildings, that is still to be decided.

“People in mid-town have been waiting to get this done, so we can take the next steps,” says Law. “SPC will revisit the community dialogues it's been having with the midtown community. Our goal is to present our Board of Trustees with new ideas on next steps to support the community within the next 60 to 90 days.”

As part of the agreement to purchase the buildings from the St. Petersburg Housing Authority, SPC agreed to provide five students from public housing with $1,000 scholarships each per year for 30 years to enroll at SPC. The college also agreed to provide 10 $250 textbook scholarships per year for 30 years and five surplus computers per year for 30 years to public housing residents enrolled at SPC.