In the past few years, the EDGE District has turned into a neighborhood known for its restaurants, bars, and boutiques. But go back just a decade and you’ll find it was only recently a sleepy strip of boarded up storefronts.
Downtown St. Pete’s boom years began right after the recession when a pair of luxury condo towers, Ovation and Signature Place, opened on Beach Drive in 2009. The new residents helped revive Beach Drive, which began filling out with more restaurants and shops.
Over the years, downtown’s popularity continued to rise, as did the demand for more places to eat, drink, and shop. Housing also became highly sought-after as people desired to live in the most walkable downtown in Florida.
And so, the boundaries of downtown St. Pete started to expand west down Central Avenue, downtown’s main retail corridor. Around 2012, revitalization hit the EDGE District, which is bounded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, 16th Street and First Avenues North and South.