​Demolition of the site of the old St. Petersburg Police Department headquarters on Central Avenue began Tuesday afternoon, paving the way for the upcoming Orange Station at the EDGE mixed-use development.

The commission approved the site plan and variances for the 16-story building during a meeting on Wednesday. Edge Central Development Partners, a joint venture group involving St. Petersburg-based J Square, Tampa-based DDA Development, and others are behind the Orange Station at the Edge project development that will be at the site of the old St. Petersburg Police headquarters. ​

The development group behind the planned mixed-use Orange Station development in the EDGE District is revising the vision plan. 
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Edge Central Development Partners, a joint venture group involving St. Petersburg-based J Square, Tampa-based DDA Development and others, plans to now add four stories of office space to the Orange Station at the Edge project, which is the site of the old St. Petersburg Police headquarters. 

by: Kevin McQuaid Commercial Real Estate Editor

Edge Central Development Partners’ planned Orange Station at the Edge project, in St. Petersburg, has undergone numerous changes since the city chose it to redevelop the former St. Petersburg Police headquarters site in November 2019.
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Many of the changes stemmed from the impact of the pandemic and influenced alterations and new designs for the two-acre tract at 1300 First Ave. North.

Now, however, Edge Central — a team made up of Tampa’s DDA Development, J Square Developers and Backstreets Capital — says demolition of the former police quarters could begin within 60 days.

Published October 15, 2020 By Margie Manning

Edge Central Development Partners, the joint venture planning an office, residential and retail project at the site of the former St. Petersburg Police headquarters, has unveiled a new name and new design for the development.
The project will be called Orange Station at the Edge, a name that recalls the Orange Belt Railway that made its first stop in St. Petersburg in 1888 at a temporary depot just blocks from the site at 1300 1st Ave. N. in the EDGE District where the development will be built.

By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer  – Senior Reporter, Tampa Bay Business Journal
Oct 14, 2020, 5:03pm EDT

Orange Station at the Edge will bring some much-needed new office space to downtown St. Petersburg.

The City of St. Pete is moving forward with a proposal for the redevelopment of a prime Central Avenue block in downtown’s booming EDGE District. 
Earlier this year, the St. Pete Police Department moved into a new 170,000 square foot headquarters building at 1301 1st Avenue North. The completion of the new $78.5 million facility paved the way for the redevelopment of the former police station, which sits on 2 acres directly across the street at 1300 1st Avenue North.
In January, with the new headquarters nearing completion, the City began the redevelopment process by issuing a request for proposal (RFP), inviting developers to submit their vision for the site. The RFP contained a list of items and uses that defined the type of development the city wanted to see on the site. In May, it was announced that seven groups had submitted proposals. And of those seven, two were invited to City Hall to present their proposals.
St. Pete Rising previously reported that the two groups invited to present were Waverly Capital and Edge Central Development Partners. Both proposals incorporated Class A office space, ground-floor retail, public parking, and civic uses into their designs, which were all high-ranking items the city wanted to see.
Today, the City announced that they are moving forward with the proposal submitted by Edge Central Development Partners, a joint-venture between J Square Developers and DDA Development, both of whom have experience developing in Downtown St. Pete, along with Craig Sher and Will Conroy of Backstreet Capital LLC, and Tim Clemmons of Place Architecture, office leasing specialist Wendy Giffin of Cushman and Wakefield, among others.
In a signed term sheet, which will be presented to the St. Petersburg City Council on December 12, the group is agreeing to a number of items for the redevelopment. Most notably is the requirement for a minimum of 100,000 square feet of Class A office space on the site. ​