Former hospital to become affordable housing for seniors

Crews are transforming the former Edward White Hospital into affordable housing for seniors and a community health center. FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy reports.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A hospital in St. Pete, that has sat vacant for a decade, is getting a second life.

Crews are transforming the former Edward White Hospital into 71 units of affordable housing for seniors. The site will also include access to vital services, like a community health center. Evara Helath will offer healthcare services not just for the residents, but for the community too. The St. Petersburg Housing Authority administrative office will also move into the six-story, 121,000-square-foot building from its location on Gandy Boulevard.

"We’re very excited about this milestone that we've achieved over the last couple of weeks with being able to get the necessary funding to complete the construction," Michael Lundy, SPHA President and CEO, said. "We know that this is going to be a huge asset for the city of St. Petersburg."

St. Pete City Council unanimously approved the money needed for the rest of the construction earlier this month, $5.9 million. It’s in addition to the $3 million the city has already invested in the project.

"We remain very grateful to City Council, to the mayor, to all of those who helped to make this project a reality," Lundy said.

"I regard it as an iconic building in the city of St. Petersburg. It's a pillar, has been in the community for many, many years. It's been vacant for 10 years, and part of our goal was not only to provide affordable housing, but to provide a good will gesture to the community- take a piece of property that had been dormant and vacant, has history. So many people can identify with the Ed White Hospital and some people were born there," Lundy said. "They got treatment there. So, I thought of how incredibly important the building is to the larger community, so that is the primary reason why we wanted to invest in the property," he said.

Lundy also said the building is centrally located, close to downtown and on the bus line.

Dig deeper:

Residents will be chosen on a first come, first served basis when the application opens. It’s for seniors 62-years-old or older who make 80 percent of the area median income, which is about $63,000 for a household of two. Their rent will be 30 percent of their adjusted income, which factors in discounts for things like being a senior.

"We will give a preference to, of course, citizens of, residents of, St. Petersburg. We give preference to those families who may be homeless or in critical housing need and so they get a preference," Lundy said. "We also will be given a preference to you those families who work, and so we get a working preference," he said.

Lundy said he has already received calls from people asking to reserve units, but the application hasn’t opened yet. He anticipates they’ll have at least 500 people sign up in the first couple of days. According to Lundy, 8,000 families are on SPHA’s Section 8 waiting list and 1,500 are on the public housing waiting list. The subsidy stays with the building in public housing, and in Section 8, it travels with the person.

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The Ed White project is a total renovation. They’ve had some setbacks, like last year’s hurricanes that flooded the former hospital’s basement, including electrical gear. The storms forced them to rip out the walls to get rid of mold and fight water damage.

"The electrical gear, which is critical to the function of the building, was flooded and water damaged," Ken Marlowe, Senior Project Manager with LEMA Construction, said. "So, that left the facility without power. So, that had to get temped out so we can have enough power, at least for construction, and move forward from there," Marlowe said.

Crews are currently in the first phase of demolition. Construction started in December of 2024.

What's next:

"We're demoing, clearing the building out," Chad Patrick, Senior Superintendent for LEMA Construction, said. "We've started some new framing back for the offices here for St. Pete Housing Authority. This job's in two different phases. The first phase is the St. Pete Housing Authority office area. The second phase will be the apartments and the health care facility in the back," he said.

"The existing structure is going to remain pretty much as it is, but it's going to definitely get a new facelift and paint job with some murals as well to give it a more modern look," Marlowe said. "It’s going to be a much livelier area. It's going to be nice to see this abandoned building get new life."

"Sometimes you have peaks and then you have some valleys, and we had our share of it. What makes this milestone so gratifying is the fact that, yeah, we've had some ups and downs, but we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's very, very gratifying that we're able to really serve the good citizens of St. Pete," Lundy said.

St. Pete Housing Authority’s new office will be ready in the spring of next year, and seniors will be able to move in in the fall of 2026. The total cost of the project is almost $44 million. Lundy said part of that high price tag is because it’s an old structure. He said they’re also getting funds from the county, and loans from banks.

The Source: FOX 13's Kailey Tracy gathered the information for this story.

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