All Hail St. Pete Rising!

If you’ve ever read the Downtown Developments column in this publication, you are surely familiar with the passion and dedication of St. Pete Rising founders Anthony Close and Brian Zucker. Their venture showcasing local urban development is a labor of love and devotion. DTSP

“Coming Attractions”

St. Pete Rising spotlights Downtown St. Petersburg’s coming attractions: new restaurants, bars, museums, hotels, condominiums, apartments, etc. According to the guys, “If there is a shovel in the dirt, we want to know why!”

Recognizing the importance of small businesses and the difficulty of getting them off the ground, Close and Zucker work with owners and developers to craft stories about upcoming projects. “If we can make opening day a little easier by giving these new businesses some exposure, we’ve done our job.”

Both have full-time jobs, and consider St. Pete Rising a “full-time hobby,” one they happily pursue with no ads or monetization plan. St. Pete Rising exists strictly out of an adoration of and commitment to their city.

For the Love of the ‘Burg

You guys seem to be really in love with St. Petersburg. What do you find so special about this town?

There is so much to love about this city. I always describe St. Pete as having a small-town vibe, but with big city amenities. Our downtown has nearly everything you’d ever want in a walkable urban city, yet you can still stroll down Central Avenue and run into people you know. Speaking of the people, everyone in St. Pete is so friendly, welcoming and accepting of absolutely everyone.

Another thing that makes St. Pete really unique is our ruthless dedication to supporting local businesses. In recent years, we’ve seen multiple chains close in downtown St. Pete because they cannot compete with the locally run businesses.

Lastly, I love our city’s commitment to the arts. We have world class art museums in the Dali, the James Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, as well as incredible murals scattered all over town by local artists such as Justin Wagher, Ya La’Ford, Zulu, and the Vitale Bros.

How did you decide upon urban development as your focus?

St. Pete Rising was really born out of necessity. Before St. Pete Rising, there wasn’t a website that compiled information on new development in Downtown St. Pete. If you wanted to learn about an ongoing project, you had to visit multiple websites and read multiple news articles just to get the full picture.

Many of the regional media organizations do a pretty good job reporting on the larger projects that are under construction, but there are so many smaller developments that go unreported or get lost in the news shuffle. We felt there needed to be a website that covered the smaller projects just as well as the larger projects.

We also wanted to build a website that could be used as a resource, one that was comprehensive enough that it could provide information on all of the projects being built, both large and small. We maintain an Active Projects page on St. Pete Rising which outlines every development that has been proposed or is under construction in downtown St. Pete.

Downtown Developments

Tell me a bit about your Downtown Developments column in Green Bench Monthly.

There is so much construction in Downtown St. Pete these days, we found it really difficult to keep track of everything. Our monthly column, Downtown Developments, briefly summarizes all of the exciting development news from the previous month, such as new restaurant openings, a condo tower breaking ground, or the installation of new bike lanes. It’s essentially the Cliff Notes of all things coming soon to DTSP.

Do you have a favorite article you’ve written?

I’ve always loved the article I wrote about Pizza Box back in 2016. In my opinion, they make the best pizza in Tampa Bay. What really makes Pizza Box special are the owners, Kelley McKell and Adam Duff. Those two are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. And in order to get the doors open in 2016, they poured everything they had into their 750-square-foot space. Making matters even tougher, another pizzeria opened three doors down from them. I’d like to think that my article helped get a few more people through their doors back when they really needed it.

These guys deserve a medal, don’t they? If you see Anthony Close or Brian Zucker on the street, give them a well-deserved high five! For more information and to keep abreast of all the latest news, visit StPeteRising.com and like them on Facebook.