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St. Pete Reorganizes to Focus on Economic, Workforce Development

Econimic Development | Growth | Development

St. Petersburg city government has a new department that will concentrate on neighborhood and downtown real estate development, small business entrepreneurial development, business retention, expansion and workforce development.

ST. PETERSBURG – The St. Petersburg city development administration has reorganized to create a new economic and workforce development department.

Sophia Sorolis has been named director and Rick Smith has been named the department’s manager. Sorolis has worked for the city for 31 years and served as the economic development manager for 11 years. Smith has worked for the city for 18 years and served as a planner III/CRA coordinator for 14 years.

“These promotions illustrate the promise of the next chapter for St. Pete’s eco dev team. Community workforce development that advances our goals for inclusive prosperity will be at the forefront of every project. The expertise and proven experience of Sophia and others on her team will carry our city’s development success far into the future,” Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin said.

The department will focus on neighborhood and downtown real estate development, small business entrepreneurial development, business retention, expansion and workforce development.

“The idea is a simple one,” City Development Administrator Alan DeLisle said. “It is designed to transform this team from mainly a planning emphasis to a hard-hitting economic development function. I will be asking Ms. Sorolis and the team to identify job-creating opportunities and to put in place strong public-private partnerships.”

For information about the department’s new and ongoing projects, go to stpete.org/ecodev.

St. Petersburg | Economic Development | Tampabay News

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