St. Petersburg Press, along with author and famed writing coach Roy Peter Clark, will celebrate the local publisher’s 5th anniversary Thursday, May 23 at the Palladium Theater’s Side Door. The event will examine the “literary year in review” from retail, publishing, writing and journalism perspectives. Roy Peter Clark. Photo: Bill DeYoung. For the third consecutive year, Clark will bestow the Roy Peter Clark Literary Award to a St. Pete resident, someone Clark considers to have made significant contributions to the city’s literary environment. “It’s an honor for me to shine a light on the gr ..read more

According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, the title Emeritus is bestowed upon “a person retired from professional life but permitted to retain as an honorary title the rank of the last office held.” St. Pete Emeritus is a recurring series shining a light on citizens who have given much to our city, and are now transitioning to a well-deserved retirement. In 1982, struggling real estate agent Al Karnavicius switched careers, opening a print-on-demand shop on 2nd Avenue South in downtown St. Petersburg. Bayprint’s beginnings were humble: Just Al, one employee and a state-of ..read more

If you’re searching for a way to give back to your community, the Catalyst’s Impact Connector is here to help. Each week, we feature five organizations in the Tampa Bay area that need your input, whether that’s time, talent, items, funding or simply awareness. We’re certain you’ll find something here that matches your interests and will positively impact the community. Adopt a Monotube Tampa Bay Watch partners with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in its statewide initiative to recycle used fishing line through a network of monofilament collection tubes called “monotubes ..read more

In an era where online shopping dominates consumer behavior, one startup intends to revolutionize the clothing industry by solving the hassle of returns. Bodidata was founded in 2016 to provide tech-focused solutions to the longstanding challenge of matching people’s unique body shapes to ready-to-wear clothing. Co-founder and St. Pete resident Bruce Terry, who has more than 35 years of experience in retail, consumer products and leadership roles, explained that returns cost companies billions of dollars, frustrate customers and damage the environment. “The cost to return an item is between th ..read more

Today’s guest on the Arts Alive! podcast is Mark Sforzini, the founder and general director of St. Petersburg Opera Company. The Auburn, Alabama native is also the music director of the all-volunteer Tampa Bay Symphony, and he’ll conduct Sunday afternoon’s Spring Concert in Ferguson Hall, part of Tampa’s Straz Center complex. The program is repeated next week at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg, and at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center. Sforzini spent 15 seasons as principal bassoon player for The Florida Orchestra. He is in every sense a musician’s musician, and through the Tampa Ba ..read more

A weekly roundup of notable local real estate news. The Sea Breeze Manor Inn, a seven-key, waterfront bed & breakfast located at 5701 Shore Blvd. S., Gulfport, has entered the market with an asking price of $2.8 million. The 3,767 square-foot, two-story Tudor-style structure was built in 1923 and renovated between 2017 and 2024.  On the first level of the main house is the home’s original living room, with a wood-burning fireplace, and two suites – one with a double private entrance, 1.5 bathrooms and views of Boca Ciega Bay; and the other with a double private entrance and private ba ..read more

A Houston-based developer plans to transform a commercially zoned plaza in St. Petersburg’s North Kenwood neighborhood into a workforce housing development under the Live Local Act. The Hanover Company intends to build 196 one-bedroom and 108 two-bedroom apartments on the 7.27-acre site at 3100 22nd Ave. N. The development firm will designate all 304 units for those earning up to 120% of the area median income (AMI). ZSPR PropCo of Tampa LLC owns the plaza currently occupied by JB Factory Flooring and Studio Physique. Kevin Reali, a local attorney with Stearns Weaver Miller, submitted the prop ..read more

Two local children have gone above and beyond to pay it forward in St. Petersburg. Lydia Frederick and Charlotte Waltz, third-grade students at Bay Vista Fundamental Elementary School, took on the task of filling the shelves at the Green Devil Closet and Pantry at St. Petersburg High School (SPHS) as part of a school service-learning project.  Tracey Keim, a teacher at St. Pete High for nearly 20 years and an alum herself, started the Green Devil Closet and Pantry (named after the school’s mascot) in 2006 in her classroom. It first began with prom dresses, then grew from there to providin ..read more

Country’s all-time top hitmaking duo, Brooks & Dunn, called it quits in 2010, after selling (and breaking) all kinds of records. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn played a string of Vegas residency dates with their pal Reba McEntire in 2015, and they each did the “solo artist” thing for a while. They came back swinging in 2019 with Reboot, a collection of their biggest big hits (they have 20 Number Ones) re-recorded with contemporary country stars like Kacey Musgraves, Luke Combs and Kane Brown. That No. 1 album under their belt buckles, Brooks & Dunn went back to the road in 2022 (after taki ..read more

Kahwa Coffee, a popular local coffee shop chain, has opened a new drive-thru location with a unique design. The new location at 6601 4th Street N. in St. Petersburg is made from two shipping containers. Although this is not Kahwa’s first drive-thru, it is the company’s first store made of shipping containers. “We thought it was something different, a way to reuse shipping containers,” said Raphael Perrier, who owns Kahwa with his wife Sarah. “The containers actually went over the Atlantic several times, but at some point, you can’t use them anymore. So we thought it was cool, for the look but ..read more