January 8, 2026 • 5 mins
The St. Petersburg Science Center closed in 2014 after educating, entertaining and inspiring generations of St. Pete students. Now construction is underway on a new Science Center to serve communities that include students, workers and seniors. That includes preparing people for the impact of AI. We speak with Joe Hamilton, co-founder of the St. Pete STEAM Group that bought the property from the city and is redeveloping and renovating the Science Center.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here Beyond the News. For many people who
grew up in and around Saint Petersburg, a trip to
the Science Center was a part of their young lives.
It opened in nineteen fifty nine and moved into its
current site in the mid sixties, closing in twenty fourteen.
But groundbreaking is set for Friday, the ninth of January
on a reimagined Saint Pete's Science Center. Joe Hamilton is
(00:24):
co founder of the group that has acquired the property,
a co founder of the new reimagined Saint Petersburg Science Center,
and he joins us to talk about what this reimagined
center will be like. Joe Hamilton, welcome to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thanks, Gordon's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, first of all, this is a process that has
taken several years to come to fruition. What was the
driving force to keep things on track and make this
happen opportunity.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Really, it's a very special location, and it presents the
opportunity to do a lot of good things in a
lot of different ways for a lot of people. And
and I just didn't want that to uh, to fade
away into the ether.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
It sounds like from what we're hearing from your organization
and from the Science Center that in this new facility,
one aspect that will be front end center is getting people,
getting young people in particular ready for the future. AI
is front end center and that's no surprise given the
(01:27):
way things are going. Tell us about your AI Center
of Excellence and AI Village and what those are expected
to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, as you mentioned, it's it's one piece of the
Science Center, but it's it's certainly a very big one.
AI is going to be one of those transformational technologies
like the Internet was. And you know, a lot of
schools are preparing AI courses, universities and a lot of
businesses are trying to adopt AI. But really there are
a lot of gaps in how people can get comfortable
(01:57):
with AI, learn how to use it to their best manage,
how to understand it, and and so we really want
to fill in those gaps both at the you know,
with kids and that they're at the sort of high
school and elementary and middle school level, but also with seniors.
Also with how nonprofits use AI, how local government uses AI,
and how the average person uses AI. And you know,
(02:20):
from an economics economic development standpoint, which is something I
feel passionate about. You know, when you have these transformative technologies,
it sort of shakes up the leader board for you know,
where companies come to and where jobs come to. And
Saint Pete's has in Tampa Bay has so many great
attributes for this new economy that's warming forming where companies
(02:42):
are getting smaller, and you know, with our quality of
life and our tax situation, we can become a real
destination for these smaller but very powerful companies to come to.
And I think creating an environment where where that receives
them normally is also a neat piece of this.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
It's seems that the new, reimagined Saint Pete's Science Center
is not only going to be a center for learning,
but also a focal point for the business community and
many of the businesses that are being incubated and started
and launched and moved to Saint Pete.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, that's right. In addition to our educational programs, we
plan to build AI specific labs for specific purposes in
partnership with local government, with nonprofits, with businesses, and we'll
be announcing some of those very soon. Some one I
can talk about now is one we'll be doing with
the Tampa Bay Times. I have the Saint Pete Catalyst,
(03:37):
and along with the Times and other journalism outlets, we've
been working hard to breathe life into local journalism, which
has been a you know, a business that's not done
well in recent years. And so we'll be looking at
building tools to help help bring news to bear and
to distribute it locally so that a lot of things
that are going uncovered that should be covered, can you know,
(03:58):
can can get content created around them. And then we'll
do equivalent labs with healthcare providers, with nonprofits and wherever
we can plug in partners to help either solve problems
or create opportunities with emerging technologies. That's that's definitely one
of the core mission points for the Science Center.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
You're going to be making some changes to the physical
layout at the Saint Pete Science Center. Talk with us
a bit about what's going to be new about the
new layout and what kind of new features will be there.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, we've got we've got a very interesting and unique
triangle design for the new building. The core sort of
square building is just actually stack center block and is
not structurally sound, and so we're going to be replacing that.
We're going to go up to four stories instead of two,
the top one being an indoor outdoor events space called
(04:48):
the Stargarden. But we will be saving the iconic round
building which is structurally sound in the front, that has
the Space Shuttle mural on it, as well as the
very historically important Walk of States and mosaic trail that's
nestled in a beautiful garden out back.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What's the timetable to get everything up and running and
start welcoming people in.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
We hope to our construction in April. As you mentioned,
the project has taken a number of years already. I
say we move at the speed of bureaucracy, so bureaucracy willing.
We hope to break ground in April, and it takes
about a year to build what we're trying to build,
maybe a little bit longer. And so if the stars
a line will be open for summer camps in summer
(05:34):
twenty twenty seven or school year twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
An apt analogy. Joe Hamilton, co founder of the Saint
Petersburg Group behind the new Saint Pete's Science Center. Groundbreaking
taking place Friday, January ninth, thank you for joining us
on beyond the news,
Gordon Bird here Beyond the News. For many people who
grew up in and around Saint Petersburg, a trip to
the Science Center was a part of their young lives.
It opened in nineteen fifty nine and moved into its
current site in the mid sixties, closing in twenty fourteen.
But groundbreaking is set for Friday, the ninth of January
on a reimagined Saint Pete's Science Center. Joe Hamilton is
(00:24):
co founder of the group that has acquired the property,
a co founder of the new reimagined Saint Petersburg Science Center,
and he joins us to talk about what this reimagined
center will be like. Joe Hamilton, welcome to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thanks, Gordon's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, first of all, this is a process that has
taken several years to come to fruition. What was the
driving force to keep things on track and make this
happen opportunity.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Really, it's a very special location, and it presents the
opportunity to do a lot of good things in a
lot of different ways for a lot of people. And
and I just didn't want that to uh, to fade
away into the ether.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
It sounds like from what we're hearing from your organization
and from the Science Center that in this new facility,
one aspect that will be front end center is getting people,
getting young people in particular ready for the future. AI
is front end center and that's no surprise given the
(01:27):
way things are going. Tell us about your AI Center
of Excellence and AI Village and what those are expected
to accomplish.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, as you mentioned, it's it's one piece of the
Science Center, but it's it's certainly a very big one.
AI is going to be one of those transformational technologies
like the Internet was. And you know, a lot of
schools are preparing AI courses, universities and a lot of
businesses are trying to adopt AI. But really there are
a lot of gaps in how people can get comfortable
(01:57):
with AI, learn how to use it to their best manage,
how to understand it, and and so we really want
to fill in those gaps both at the you know,
with kids and that they're at the sort of high
school and elementary and middle school level, but also with seniors.
Also with how nonprofits use AI, how local government uses AI,
and how the average person uses AI. And you know,
(02:20):
from an economics economic development standpoint, which is something I
feel passionate about. You know, when you have these transformative technologies,
it sort of shakes up the leader board for you know,
where companies come to and where jobs come to. And
Saint Pete's has in Tampa Bay has so many great
attributes for this new economy that's warming forming where companies
(02:42):
are getting smaller, and you know, with our quality of
life and our tax situation, we can become a real
destination for these smaller but very powerful companies to come to.
And I think creating an environment where where that receives
them normally is also a neat piece of this.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
It's seems that the new, reimagined Saint Pete's Science Center
is not only going to be a center for learning,
but also a focal point for the business community and
many of the businesses that are being incubated and started
and launched and moved to Saint Pete.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, that's right. In addition to our educational programs, we
plan to build AI specific labs for specific purposes in
partnership with local government, with nonprofits, with businesses, and we'll
be announcing some of those very soon. Some one I
can talk about now is one we'll be doing with
the Tampa Bay Times. I have the Saint Pete Catalyst,
(03:37):
and along with the Times and other journalism outlets, we've
been working hard to breathe life into local journalism, which
has been a you know, a business that's not done
well in recent years. And so we'll be looking at
building tools to help help bring news to bear and
to distribute it locally so that a lot of things
that are going uncovered that should be covered, can you know,
(03:58):
can can get content created around them. And then we'll
do equivalent labs with healthcare providers, with nonprofits and wherever
we can plug in partners to help either solve problems
or create opportunities with emerging technologies. That's that's definitely one
of the core mission points for the Science Center.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
You're going to be making some changes to the physical
layout at the Saint Pete Science Center. Talk with us
a bit about what's going to be new about the
new layout and what kind of new features will be there.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, we've got we've got a very interesting and unique
triangle design for the new building. The core sort of
square building is just actually stack center block and is
not structurally sound, and so we're going to be replacing that.
We're going to go up to four stories instead of two,
the top one being an indoor outdoor events space called
(04:48):
the Stargarden. But we will be saving the iconic round
building which is structurally sound in the front, that has
the Space Shuttle mural on it, as well as the
very historically important Walk of States and mosaic trail that's
nestled in a beautiful garden out back.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What's the timetable to get everything up and running and
start welcoming people in.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
We hope to our construction in April. As you mentioned,
the project has taken a number of years already. I
say we move at the speed of bureaucracy, so bureaucracy willing.
We hope to break ground in April, and it takes
about a year to build what we're trying to build,
maybe a little bit longer. And so if the stars
a line will be open for summer camps in summer
(05:34):
twenty twenty seven or school year twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
An apt analogy. Joe Hamilton, co founder of the Saint
Petersburg Group behind the new Saint Pete's Science Center. Groundbreaking
taking place Friday, January ninth, thank you for joining us
on beyond the news,
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