A city-owned building at 450 8th Avenue Southeast in St. Pete will soon become a hub for marine science, defense, and technology companies once a lease proposal is approved by City Council. The St. Petersburg Innovation District has proposed to lease the 30,000 square foot building which was recently vacated by SRI.
Under the proposal, the building would become home to a new project called the St. Petersburg Maritime and Defense Technology Hub (Hub) and will house SPID’s main office. Space in the building would be sub-leased to companies in the city’s Grow Smarter target industries. The building sits in the Innovation District which is anchored by USF St. Petersburg, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, and Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.
The Hub is expected to bring together industry, government, and academia to provide a collaborative environment for its subtenants. The hope is that, while SRI struggled because of their isolation, the Hub will create an environment for tenants to pursue joint funding opportunities and facilitate other collaboration.
“The Innovation District's mission is to develop St. Petersburg into an environment that fosters job growth, economic development, and learning and inspiration by bringing innovative people and organizations together,” says Alison Barlow, Executive Director of the St. Petersburg Innovation District. “The Maritime and Defense Technology Hub will be a key addition to this mission through the work of the curated organizations that will come together in the building and their collective reach into the community.
For more about the Hub out St. Pete Rising.com (click here) , St Pete Catalyst (click here), or the Tampa Bay Business Journal (click here).
There are many quotes about innovation and how it is fostered. I have several hanging in my office. We recently looked to these as we were deciding the name for our new breakfast series. Our brainstorming kept coming back to the concept that ideas are the beginning - they create the "spark" that fuels innovation.
Congratulations to Sarah Gilbert, Chief Operating Officer of Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital for being named a 2024 BusinessWoman of the Year honoree. We are also thrilled that Sarah has recently joined the Board of Directors for the Innovation District.
The University of South Florida (USF) has announced its intention to create a college focused on the rapidly evolving fields of artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and computing, with the goal of positioning the Tampa Bay region and state of Florida as a national leader. USF is the first university in Florida and among the first in the nation to announce plans to create a college dedicated to AI and cybersecurity.