ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A bit of bipartisan support in the Florida legislature is bringing more money to St. Petersburg to revitalize the long-closed science center in the city.

What You Need To Know

  • The Florida state legislature has set aside $2.5 million to help restore the St. Petersburg Science Center

  • The center, which closed in 2014, was bought by the city in 2019

  • The St. Petersburg Group is working to bring the Science Center back into operation, which would include adding two additional floors to the existing structure

  • Joe Hamilton, co-founder of the St. Petersburg Group, expects the center to reopen by the start of the 2025 school year

The building was used to enlighten children and get them interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics but closed down in 2014.

Now, 10 years later, a Democratic state senator and a Republican representative have worked to get $2.5 million to help bring the center back to life.

Even in its current condition, Sen. Darryl Rouson knows what this place means to St. Petersburg.

“My own little brother’s spark in knowledge for engineering and sciences was gained here,” he said.

Rouson’s brother, he says, went into the sciences as a career.

He got an engineering degree from Howard and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford and he says his brother credited the Science Center in St. Pete for igniting his interest in that field.

“We knew the joy that it brought to children,” Rouson said. “We knew the impact that it had on their lives, on their minds.”

For the last 10 years, though, the building has been closed.

Over that time, the city ended up buying the building in 2019 and, with the help of funding from state and federal governments and with work from Rouson and Republican Rep. Bernie Jacques, the center is closer than ever to coming back to life.

Even in its current state, Joe Hamilton sees the vision ahead of him.

“It has represented a place where people with kids can understand what exists out there because you can’t strive for something that you don’t know that exists,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton is the co-founder of the St. Petersburg Group, who is leading the current charge to get this building across the finish line and make it better than it was before.

“It’ll be much bigger and broader than it was in the past,” Hamilton said.

There are already millions of dollars of work to restore the existing building, but Hamilton says they plan on adding two additional floors and will have things like a hybrid auditorium and a rooftop garden.

“It’s a show of dedication to kids,” Hamilton said. “But it’s also a show of understanding that innovation and the technologies that can drive the future.”

According to Hamilton, this project is going to cost about $13 million.

He anticipates if all goes to plan with the city voting to sell the property to the St. Pete Group, they’ll break ground in September.

So that folks, like Rouson, can soon show people what a space like this means to him and his family. To hopefully inspire hundreds of kids for years to come.