St. Pete is home to four institutions of higher learning that attract talent from around the nation. Students who come here for school often fall in love with the area and stick around, bringing fresh energy and expertise to a variety of industries. These institutions and the surrounding colleges and universities graduate more than 30,000 potential employees every year and businesses benefit from direct access to this renewable workforce.
The University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus is Pinellas County’s residential public research institution. Located on Bayboro Harbor in the City’s Innovation District, USF in St. Pete offers more than 40 undergraduate and graduate programs in three colleges: Arts & Sciences, Business, and Education.
St. Petersburg College (SPC) is a state college in the Florida College System, founded in 1927. It has on average 65,000 students across 11 campuses and centers across the Bay area, with four located in St. Petersburg.
Florida Poly, about an hour from downtown St. Pete, is Florida’s only all-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) university.
Eckerd College’s 188-acre campus along Boca Ciega Bay is a natural oasis with native plants and wildlife just 10 minutes from downtown St. Pete. With its own white sand beach and countless opportunities to engage with nature, Eckerd encourages students to “Think Outside.”
The University of Tampa is a private university with 11,000+ students a short drive from St. Pete. Plant Hall, the University’s main academic and administrative building is the former Tampa Bay Hotel. Its iconic minarets are a symbol of the university and the city.
Stetson University College of Law was founded in 1900, as Florida’s first law school. The historic campus is located in Gulfport, FL with a College of Law satellite campus in downtown Tampa, which opened in 2004. The campus is located just minutes from the beach, and a short drive from downtown St. Petersburg.
Pinellas Technical College gives students the opportunity to develop national workplace competencies to fill the needs of business and industry. Programs support industry with a variety of programs including computer systems and IT, computer-aided modeling and drawing, and welding technology.
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In a recent ADP Research analysis, the Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater region landed the #2 spot among 53 major U.S. metros..
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Visit us in St. Pete
The St. Pete EDC is located at 111 2nd Ave NE, Ste. 610, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. Parking is available in the Plaza LAZ lot located next to the building; use GPS for 221 1st St N, St. Petersburg, FL 33701, which is near the entrance located on 1st Street N. between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.
Parking is $5/hour for the first 3 hours and $20 thereafter; it is a card payment facility only (no cash). Visitor parking is on the 1st and 4th floors; please note there is no handicapped access from the parking garage above the first floor.
There is also surrounding street parking; pay with ParkMobile or in the Sundial Garage located 2 blocks away.
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