A St. Petersburg nonprofit is looking to transform underused land beneath I-275 into a 12-acre park called Trails Crossing.
This $55 million project would turn the surface parking spaces into a park with playgrounds, art installations, green spaces, an outdoor market plaza, adult exercise areas and walking and biking paths.
Trails Crossing could connect several parts of the city together — including the Historic Kenwood neighborhood, the CSX line, Campbell Park and the Deuces corridor.
John Barkett co-founded the nonprofit Friends of Trails Crossing. He said he hopes the project will reimagine what is now parking or unused land.
“It's really a way to get an awesome market in the center of where all of our locals like to congregate and have them protected from the rain and the sun,” Barkett said.
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But the surface parking where Trails Crossing would be built during later phases of the project is currently subleased to rock-climbing gym Vertical Ventures.
One of the gym’s owners, Hal Thureson, said his business wouldn’t be affected until future phases are built.
The city renewed Vertical Ventures’ parking lease when it was up last year, giving the business years to plan what it will do if Trails Crossing moves forward.
“If we lost all of our parking and we weren't able to figure out a suitable replacement for it, I mean we probably wouldn't stay in business,” Thureson said.
But as a longtime resident of St. Petersburg, Thureson rides his bike along the Pinellas Trail daily, which is near the projected ground-breaking for phase one between First and Third Avenue South. That section would take about three years to complete and cost around $15 million.
Thureson admits his feelings on the project might be different if his business wasn’t a factor.
“I would probably say, ‘Hey, that looks great, seems cool to me,’” Thureson said. “I balance that with, well, it could have a negative impact on our business, but who knows?”
Barkett says the planned park mirrors a statewide trend to transform unused land under highways into public parks — including Miami’s Underline underneath the Metrotrail transit line, Jacksonville’s Artist Walk Skatepark beneath the Fuller Warren Bridge and Orlando’s The Canopy, which is a planned park under Interstate 4.
Trails Crossing has been in the works for a while. Barkett began discussing this idea during former Mayor Rick Kriseman’s administration.
The project was first proposed to the St. Pete City Council about four years ago, and it would take quite a while before this could become a reality.
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The land underneath I-275 is owned by the Florida Department of Transportation, so the city would need an agreement with the state to begin construction.
If FDOT approves this agreement, the next obstacle is the $55 million question: where will the money come from?
Barkett said his nonprofit was a sponsor for the city’s Reconnecting Communities planning grant, which won St. Petersburg $1.38 million from the federal government last year. He hopes that grants like this, sponsors and programming will eventually raise enough to start the project.
Trails Crossing, if approved, won’t be up and running for 10-15 years.
“It's a bigger connectivity picture,” said Barkett. “We really see Trails Crossing as the catalyst for all of this.”
