Pinellas County could put $2.225 million in tourist-development tax revenue toward a $33.7 million first phase of the Morean Art Center and Chihuly Collection redevelopment, helping finance a new five-story arts complex planned for downtown St. Petersburg.
The proposed funding agreement, which goes before county commissioners Sept. 24, includes new cost and construction details for the Central Avenue project between Seventh and Eighth streets. WJ Architects is designing the 42,150-square-foot first phase, which would bring the Morean Art Center and Chihuly Collection under one roof at an estimated construction cost of about $793 per square foot.
Visitors would enter through a ground floor with a 4,100-square-foot exhibition gallery, 2,000-square-foot gift shop, three retail spaces totaling 5,200 square feet, a glass studio and support area and a 2,400-square-foot multipurpose room. The Chihuly Collection would occupy much of the second floor before the building gives way to classrooms, artist galleries and common areas and administrative space on the upper floors.
The preliminary estimate from St. Petersburg-based Create Building Company budgets $1.7 million for a specialty staircase and $680,000 for museum lighting, along with $510,000 each for museum flooring and ceiling finishes. The $5.25 million exterior curtain-wall system is the largest individual construction item listed, contributing to a building shell estimated at $8.36 million, compared with $6.19 million for interiors and nearly $5.98 million for mechanical, electrical, plumbing and other building systems…