CONVERSATIONS
CEO, St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership
“How do you preserve the best of St. Pete,
while recognizing that St. Pete is going to
change?” That’s a central question for Jason
the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership.
Mathis was hired in July to lead the
Downtown Partnership - a private
organization that invests in projectbased
initiatives in the city core to
and citizens. After an extensive,
months-long search process, he is
CEO Joni James, who stepped down
in late 2017. Mathis brings 20+ years
most recently with the Downtown
Alliance of Salt Lake City.
St. Petersburg has long felt like
home to Mathis. In fact, he can
chronicle his son’s growing years
through photos taken on St. Pete
Beach. Despite spending his entire
adult life in Salt Lake City, Mathis and
his family often vacationed in or around
Orlando, they’d always be sure to make
their way to St. Pete Beach. Now, they’re
excited to call St. Pete home full-time.
As Mathis and his family adjust to their
new hometown, Mathis has hit the
ground running, absorbing information
and meeting with as many business and
community leaders as possible.
Meeting the city with fresh eyes has its
window when I am still an outsider and I
don’t have any baggage or relationships
so I can see things with fresh eyes,” he
explained. “But that should be moderated a
little bit with some base knowledge of what
has happened before and what people care
about.”
He’s learning more about the city every
48 StPeteLifeMag.com November/December 2018
day, and developing priorities for his tenure
at the Partnership. That includes a tight
relationship with the City of St. Petersburg.
“Most downtown organizations have a big
the property owners, but the city is the
conduit to collect those taxes and have a
contract with the downtown organization.”
That’s how the Downtown Alliance of
Salt Lake City functioned, but not how St.
Petersburg Downtown Partnership works.
“Here, it is nearly 100 percent private
money,” says Mathis.
That private money comes from the
founders of the St. Petersburg Downtown
Partnership. During its formation 50 years
ago, the founders accumulated 10 acres of
the private land that surrounded Bayboro
Harbor. That land made the Partnership’s
South Florida campus within St. Petersburg,
possible. It is on that land where the
USFSP campus now sits. The Partnership
is supported by private shareholders, but it
also garners much of its income from the
management of USFSP buildings, among
other sources.
“In some ways it’s great because you can
move quickly,” said Mathis. “But in some
ways I don’t know if we have had as close
a relationship with the city as we might
have if we were dependent on the city for
funding.” One of Mathis’ priorities will be to
work closely with the City of St. Petersburg
to push Partnership initiatives forward.
Development is essential, according to
Mathis, for a successful city core. “No
matter where you are, what city you live in,
it’s going to change,” he said. “Really the
goal is to acknowledge that change is going
to happen but to manage that change to try
to preserve the elements that make
the community unique, and then
bring in new amenities, new buildings,
new developments that build on the
character that already exists.”
Mathis also sees incredible potential
for building up St. Pete’s brand with
the Innovation District - another
project pushed forward by the
Partnership. It houses USFSP, USF
College of Marine Sciences, NOAA,
and other leading marine research
and educational facilities, as well
as Johns Hopkins All Childrens, the
Poynter Institute, and Bayfront Health
St. Petersburg.
“There is this secret about St. Pete in
terms of this concentration - this cluster
- of marine research,” said Mathis. “With
climate change and the impact of oceans on
coastal communities and because we have
a real incentive to understand this better,
St. Petersburg is uniquely positioned to
be a global leader in understanding these
issues and what it’s going to take to prepare
cities.”
Mathis’ other priorities will include a
focus on arts as economic drivers, the
Tropicana Field redevelopment project, the
consolidation of USFSP into the full USF
system, and encouraging the development
Petersburg.
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Jason Mathis
ST. PETE
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