Spanning over 25 acres on one of the country’s most beautiful waterfronts, TradeWinds Island Resorts, which operates the Island Grand and RumFish Beach Resorts, is already an expansive property situated on St. Pete Beach.

Currently, Island Grand contains 545 hotel rooms, 10 restaurants and bars, and 5 pools with 450 cabanas. RumFish Beach Resort contains 352 hotel rooms, 5 restaurants and lounges, and 4 pools with 192 cabanas.

However, with a massive expansion in the works, TradeWinds will soon include even more hotel rooms, restaurants, pools, and retail.

The beach resort’s expansion plan will add nearly 850,000 square feet of additional resort space over the next 12 years, including:

• 650 upscale guest rooms

• 33,000 square feet of conference space including a 20,000 square foot ballroom

• 18,000 square feet of new retail space

• Three new swimming pools with slides and other amenities for families

• Over 1,600 parking spaces across three new parking garages

Additionally, the project will add a new 30-foot-wide landscaped, paved, and well-lit beach access which will be built, paid for, and maintained by TradeWinds.

The expansion also includes a multi-million-dollar upgrade to the property’s infrastructure. A sophisticated stormwater drainage system will be installed on TradeWinds land that will address existing flooding concerns along TradeWinds’ side of Gulf Boulevard.

Nunzio Marc DeSantis Architects, a renowned architect who has designed many luxury hotels for Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton, has been tapped to design the expansion.

Although the total project cost is not yet known, the expansion will not be funded by public money. The project is 100% privately funded and is expected to bring more than $19 million in new annual tax revenue to the community.

The expansion will be built in four non-continuous phases with an estimated start of construction in 2023 and an estimated completion of the last phase in 2034.

Phase 1, which will be constructed between 2023 and 2024, consists of a new 12-story 154-key hotel building and a 575-space parking garage.

Phase 2, which is planned for 2028 through 2029, will add an 11-story 261-key hotel building, a 736-space parking garage, a conference center, and retail. 

Phase 3, which will rise between 2032 through 2034, contains a 12-story 235-unit hotel building, a 297-space parking garage, and retail. 

The last phase, which is also planned for 2032 through 2034, calls for a new two-story hotel lobby and 34-space parking deck.

A majority of the expansion project will be built on underutilized surface parking lots. Only one small two-story building will be demolished to make way for development.

Even with the expansion, TradeWinds is not maxing out its development potential.

The City of St. Pete Beach’s land development regulations allow for 75 temporary lodging units per acre. In other words, the 25-acre TradeWinds property is permitted to have 1,908 units by right. After the expansion is complete, the resort will have 1,531 units (881 existing units + 650 new units). 

“We’ve assembled a world-class team. We’re serious about creating a gorgeous project that exceeds the community’s expectations as it is being built to higher standards than the code requires,” mentions the project’s website. 

In addition to Nunzio Marc DeSantis, the development team includes Perry-Becker, Harris Civil Engineering, Hill Ward Henderson, and Tarapani Planning Services.

Not all residents of St. Pete Beach are happy about the proposed plan. A petition was started recently to “protect St. Pete Beach” and reject TradeWind’s proposed expansion. As of the date this article was published, the petition had 1,275 signatures.

A community meeting to discuss the proposal is scheduled for Thursday July 14th from 6:30 pm  to 7:30 pm at the Island Grand Resort at 5500 Gulf Boulevard.

For more information on the expansion, TradeWinds Islands Resorts has created a website to share its vision and engage city residents.