After years of local drama, politics, and fighting about the funding and the design, the long-awaited new St. Pete Pier finally opened to the public this summer. The old inverted pyramid pier closed down in 2013 after standing there for 40 years and was demolished shortly after to make room for the new one. The brand new pier opened to the public in July of 2020, and we decided to go check it out! Here’s what we found.
The word “pier” might bring up visions of just another wooden or concrete structure jutting out into the sea that’s covered in pelicans, fisherman, and few tourists. But the new St. Pete Pier is what I’d call just about the loosest definition of a “pier” you might imagine. Sure, it’s technically a pier because it’s a structure that sticks out into the water, but this is more of an urban park, and open-air gathering space on the water. There are bars, restaurants, an artists market, bicyclists, buskers, and of course lots of visitors out enjoying a gorgeous day on the water.
After parking a few blocks away from the pier on Central Avenue we had a quick lunch at Datz, a popular gastropub among the many great local bars and restaurants in downtown St. Petersburg, and walked toward the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina.
While walking alongside the marina, we noticed these mini buses dropping people off at the entrance to the pier. Is that a self driving car? It is! The Pinellas County Transit Authority has launched an electric autonomous vehicle program in downtown St. Petersburg to shuttle visitors along Bayshore Drive, dropping them off near the new pier. Keeping with green initiative, the St. Pete Pier itself is adorned with a series of solar panels that provide both electricity for the pier, and shade for the open air artists market.
The Brown Pelican is the official bird of St. Petersburg, Florida (bet you didn’t know that!), and these little pelican statues mark the entrance to the new St. Pete Pier.
Walking a little further down, past palm trees covered in Christmas decorations there’s an open-air artists market under the previously mentioned solar panel shades. Today there were artists, stands for t-shirts, sun hats, hot sauce, and custom made wooden signs.
Love these signs that represent some iconic Florida and St. Petersburg landmarks. That Stingray Shuffle one is great and something that every Florida beachgoer is very familiar with.
There are a few bars and restaurants at the base of the pier that let you grab a drink to go! Tell your bartender that you want one to walk the pier, and they’ll happily pour it in a cup for you to take a walk with. We loved this option since there’s just something about walking around on a beautiful fall in Florida day with a cold one in hand. St. Petersburg is home to a bunch of great local craft breweries that have their beers here on tap.
Wherever there could be green space on the pier, there is green space. The St. Pete Pier is covered in palm trees, sea oats, palmettos and native Florida grasses. The local environmental conservation group, Tampa Bay Watch, has a Discovery Center here on the pier too, where you can learn about their mission to protect the bay and get hands on with some of the creatures that call this huge estuary their home. This all really speaks to the forward-thinking, environmentally friendly focus of the pier.
This one section of the pier was split up into a couple of thinner bridges spanning the water. We could see a few sheepshead, stingray, and snook hanging out near the pilings, but there is no fishing allowed along the main pier. There is a fishing platform all the way at the end though! So feel free to bring your fishing gear along when visiting.
The St. Pete Pier looks like it’s a really popular place for families, with a lot of stuff for the kids. This large, and really elaborate playground looked like the kind of thing I would have loved as kid. Lots of slides, stuff to crawl and climb on, and the ground was this kind of soft spongy material to cushion any spills.
Every little kid loves a good splash park, and this place was a hit with toddlers (and dogs) that couldn’t resist letting the fountains blast them in the face with cool water.
There aren’t too many beaches on Tampa Bay itself. Most of them are long the Gulf coast shores, but here at the St. Pete Pier you’ll find Spa Beach. Seeing some nice clean white sand here to enjoy was a pleasant surprise. There’s a little outdoor shower area to wash off your sand feet and a picnic area.
Approaching the end of the pier we found this to be just such a great spot to soak in gorgeous day in late November. Great people watching here with a few singing buskers playing guitar, bicyclists, and other couples out having a perfect Saturday afternoon. We also noticed that Rollerblading must be a thing again because there were a lot of skaters out here taking advantage of this smooth, picturesque slab of concrete.
What used to be an inverted pyramid at the old pier, is now this modern-looking structure of glass, concrete, and solar panels at the new St. Pete Pier. There are two restaurants up there, a tiki bar on the upper deck, and a fishing platform on the other side.
We knew we just had to take advantage of that upper deck to get a look at the view from above. Here’s a look back down the pier toward downtown St. Pete, with the marina in the distance on the left, and Spa Beach on the right.
There was a lot of boat activity out here on such a perfect day. Kayakers, jet skiers, sailboats, and even people pulling their fishing boat up alongside the pier to take advantage of the structure. They know that fish love to hide under things like piers, and we saw lots of them down there.
If you can’t be on one of those boats, the next best thing is hangin out on the St. Pete Pier watching all of those boats come and go. These sailboats passed very closely to the pier on their way back to the marina.
So what did we think of the new St. Pete Pier? Loved it. The city of St. Petersburg went through a lot of headaches and drama to make this thing happen, and they pulled off a smashing success. It just has such a great vibe to it. It’s modern but doesn’t feel like it will become cheesy or dated (like the Inverted Pyramid did) in just a few decades. It’s laid back enough to let street performers and artists work here, which only feeds the festive atmosphere we found. It’s kid-friendly, family-friendly, but also has that Tiki bar at the top and craft beers on tap. This is the kind of place that’s destined to become a landmark attraction here on this side of Florida while serving as a gathering spot for locals.