Work on $29M St. Petersburg senior housing project starts next month

Construction is set to begin on a $29 million St. Petersburg affordable housing project on the site of a former local hospital.

The St. Petersburg Housing Authority has set Aug. 27 as the date for the ceremonial groundbreaking for what it is calling the Edward White Campus.

The project, which is for low-income seniors, is a renovation of the former Edward White Hospital building on Ninth Avenue North in the city’s North Kenwood neighborhood.

When complete, the six-story, 121,000-square-foot former hospital will have 71 apartments for low-income seniors. Along with the apartments, the building will be the site of the housing authority’s new headquarters.

As part of the renovation, SPHA says the building will get new windows, doors, paint and landscaping as well as updates to make it comply with Americans with Disabilities Act code requirements.

Inside, the building’s first floor will include a lobby dining hall, a catering kitchen, a mail room and bike storage. There will also be a community room, computer lab and fitness center.

According to SPHA, the building will be made up of three facilities including the senior living community and headquarters and Evara Health, which will offer health care services.

The Edward White Hospital closed in 2014 after 38 years, and the property has sat vacant since. SPHA bought it 2021 for $5.1 million.

The hospital was named in honor of astronaut Ed White who was the first American astronaut to perform a spacewalk in 1965. He died two years later, at 36, in a fire aboard the Apollo 1 spacecraft. Astronauts Roger B. Chaffee and Virgil Grissom also died in the fire.

SPHA says it reached out to White’s family for permission to continuing to use the name and it was granted.