The TradeWinds Expansion on St. Pete Beach

The TradeWinds Island Resorts, owns and operates the RumFish and Island Grand Beach Resorts on Florida’s St. Pete Beach. Our property offers a breathtaking place to relax and enjoy life. We are proud to bring in significant revenue to the local economy.

However, we believe progress is the best way to continue our positive impact. Over the next decade, our TradeWinds expansion on St. Pete Beach will go into action. Our development plan includes hotels, parking garages, pools, conference centers, and retail stores. We’ll also upgrade our existing TradeWinds property infrastructure.

This complex plan will benefit the entire city of St. Pete Beach and contribute to stimulating the local economy. Here’s everything you need to know:

Details of the TradeWinds Expansion on St. Pete Beach Plan

The TradeWinds expansion plan includes four phases, beginning in 2023 and ending in 2034. During these four phases, we’ll add almost 850,000 square feet of brand-new resort space, including upscale hotel rooms, conference and event space, retail space, and fun and relaxing pools. We’ll also add scenic and well-lit beach access via a 30-foot-wide paved pathway directly from our TradeWinds property.

To cap it all, we’re investing several million dollars in upgrading the infrastructure of our existing TradeWinds property. The upgrade will include a state-of-the-art stormwater drainage system to address current flooding concerns.

Our TradeWinds expansion has private funding, so we will not use any taxpayer dollars. Instead, we’ll bring money to the St. Pete Beach local economy by increasing tourism, job opportunities, and property values in the community.

Benefits of the TradeWinds Expansion

The St. Pete Beach Resort Will Increase Tourism

The existing TradeWinds resorts in St. Pete Beach have increased tourism, and our new expansion plan will continue that trend. Our impressive property, with its many amenities, draws tourists from all over the country and abroad. As we grow our property, we’ll provide more room for families to stay and more space for visitors to explore.

The increase in tourism means more support for local restaurants, shops, and other businesses. Our expansion will help generate taxable revenue, aiding the local economy and benefiting all residents of the city of St. Pete Beach and its surrounding communities.

As more tourists come to our community and have positive experiences at our St. Pete Beach resort, they’ll continue to boost the reputation of the area as a whole as a fantastic vacation stay. We project that this will further increase tourism and the revenue the tourists bring by $19 million in new annual tax rolls.

Our Expanded Property Will Be Perfect for Large Events

Tourists won’t be the only ones our expanded and improved property will attract. Our 33,000 square feet of new conference space—including an astounding 20,000-square-foot ballroom—will be the perfect setting for large group gatherings. Our resort will host events like major conferences, corporate retreats and weddings, continually bringing more people to St. Pete Beach.

The Expansion Will Create Job Opportunities

The TradeWinds expansion will also create jobs in and around our St. Pete Beach property. We’ve already been working with new designers and architects, and we’ll hire numerous construction workers and other professionals to complete the expansion project over the next decade-plus.

Once we’ve opened the new hotels, restaurants, pools, and other spaces, we’ll have plenty of new job opportunities. Hotel staff, waiters and waitresses, and lifeguards are just a few of the hundreds of positions we’ll need to fill to keep our resort operating at the highest level.

Further, this estimate just includes the 300 or more jobs we’ll create on our property alone. As tourism increases and helps local businesses grow and thrive, employment will increase in the areas surrounding our St. Pete Beach resort as well.

Property Value on St. Pete Beach and the Surrounding Areas Will Rise

The influx of tourism, the creation of job opportunities, and the reputation of St. Pete Beach as a high-quality destination with a world-class beach resort will all combine to make the city and its surrounding area a more desirable place to live and work. In turn, property values will consistently rise.

Whether you own residential, commercial, or industrial property in St. Pete Beach or the neighboring areas, you have invested in that property. Our goal at TradeWinds Island Resorts’ expansion project is to help you realize returns on your investment and grow your wealth for generations to come.

Addressing Pushback to the TradeWinds Expansion Plan

TradeWinds Island Resorts understands that some St. Pete Beach residents have concerns about the expansion plan. We assure you that we have been listening, and will continue to listen, to issues that the community raises. We will do everything we can to address reasonable worries. Some of these issues include:

Cost

As we noted, our expansion is 100% privately funded and will not cost taxpayers.

Flooding

As part of our upgraded infrastructure plans, a stormwater drainage system will help with current flooding concerns on the TradeWinds Island Resorts property side of Gulf Boulevard.

Traffic

The slow traffic flow on Gulf Boulevard has also been a significant community concern. To ease the traffic, our expansion plan will eliminate all entry points to our property from Gulf Boulevard. Instead, we’ll build a frontage road inside the TradeWinds Island Resorts property.

Constant Demolition and Construction

Another community concern is the loud sound of constant demolition and construction. While we can’t tell you that the expansion will be a silent endeavor, we do have some points to help ease the worry. First, we have no demolition plans outside of one outdated building.

Second, our construction will be efficient and won’t be constant from 2023-2034 due to our separate phases. We’ll build phase one from 2023-24, phase two from 2028-29, and phases three and four from 2032-34. You won’t have to worry about the construction during breaks in between stages.

TradeWinds Island Resorts

The TradeWinds expansion on St. Pete Beach will help grow the local economy and boost the city’s reputation as a prime Florida vacation destination. As TradeWinds Island Resorts expands, we’ll continue prioritizing the well-being of St. Pete Beach and our neighbors, the local residents. Visit our FAQs page or join our Facebook group to learn more about the project.