Courtesy of Google Maps
By James Bennett III
USF St. Petersburg is taking another step toward expansion.
During a Dec. 5 St. Petersburg city council meeting, Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock explained that the St. Petersburg campus is “taking steps” to bring fine and performing arts, biomedical sciences and engineering programs to the St. Petersburg campus.
Tadlock added that the St. Petersburg campus needs to bring fine and performing arts programs to the campus “because it aligns with the importance of the arts in the city.”
“If we’re going to bring these things to St. Petersburg, you’ve got to have the space. And so we’re working with the city on a possible lease in order to do that,” he said.
He explained that the university is considering the 32,760-square-foot, city-owned building at 450 Eighth Ave. SE.
SRI International, a scientific research institution headquartered in California, already has employees in the building.
In an article published by the St. Pete Catalyst, city development administrator Alan DeLisle explained that USF St. Petersburg would use the first floor and have SRI sublease the second floor.
“We’re in conversations with the city right now about the SRI facility and becoming engaged in that facility,so that we can start moving forward in the future to use that facility as an expansion area, which we desperately need,” Tadlock said in the article.
