The Pinellas County Urban League is looking for a new headquarters and hopes its next home — and a new revenue source — could take shape in the Deuces corridor of St. Petersburg.

The civil rights organization laid out its plan in an unsolicited proposal submitted this month. It’s asking that the city construct and own the commercial building, which the Urban League would lease as anchor tenant. The Urban League would also manage the property with an option to buy it. According to the 22-page proposal, the long-term lease terms would be negotiated.

The commercial building would usher in the second phase of Deuces Rising, an initiative that began in 2019 under former Mayor Rick Kriseman to revitalize the Deuces, St. Petersburg’s former center of Black culture and entertainment along 22nd Street South. The construction of 24 subsidized townhomes, a $19 million project that was almost called off by the City Council, marked the first phase of the project.

“We’re happy to reengage with the city and say this is something the Urban League would like to lead and keep Deuces Rising momentum going,” said Urban League President and CEO Nikki Gaskin Capehart, who served as Kriseman’s director of urban affairs at City Hall.

The early concept shows a 28,000-square-foot building, to be called the Sankofa Empowerment Center, which would be two stories with a rooftop terrace. The Urban League would move its corporate headquarters to part of the second floor. The entire first floor and some of the second floor would offer traditional and smaller lease space, along with coworking spaces and incubator-style suites for startup businesses.

That kind of community would provide support for entrepreneurs launching or growing their business enterprises, the proposal states. The Urban League said it has cultivated a network of more than 75 entrepreneurs who have expressed interest in renting in the building. Its goal is to have 90% occupancy and 70% shared and coworking capacity by the second year of operations.

Capehart said she is working with the city to schedule a meeting to discuss the proposal. City Development Administrator James Corbett said the city is in the process of reviewing the pitch and determining next steps. The city tabled the commercial part of the Deuces Rising project to focus on the townhomes, which were approved in January 2024.

“It’s always been our desire to advance the commercial part of it as well,” Corbett said.

The contractor for those townhomes, Horus Construction, is also part of a development group that submitted an unsolicited proposal last year to develop the Historic Gas Plant District. The city’s 30-day window to solicit competing proposals for that project closes Feb. 3.

The City Council voted in April 2021 to partner with the Sankofa Vision Group to operate and sublease the planned commercial space to local and minority-owned businesses. Gypsy Gallardo, who spearheaded that effort, said she retired from community leadership but looks forward to attending the grand opening celebration.

“All of the original Sankofa Group partners stand in support of the Urban League vision,” Gallardo wrote in a text message. “We have all remained in step with Nikki as she crafted this incredible proposal.”

Beyond serving as a business incubator space, the Urban League pitched establishing a community emergency operations center in the building that would allow nonprofit and faith-based organizations to coordinate emergency response efforts. The building would have backup generators and showers.

There would also be added benefits for residents living in the Deuces townhomes. Residents could use a gym, attend Urban League programs for entrepreneurs and enroll children in activities.

“It’s a direct connection to building the corridor back alive with residential purchasing power and support, which is what the corridor once was,” Capehart said. “It’s another way for us to help it become a destination place in the community.”

Capehart said the Urban League’s long-term goal is to buy the commercial building from the city. She said the Urban League owns its current home on 31st Street North in Kenwood and, after the move to the Deuces, would redevelop its current footprint into a similar mixed-use development.

“We talk about the importance of building generational wealth through ownership,” Capehart said. “The legacy of leadership that came before me, we owe them an amazing debt of gratitude because we’re in a fantastic position where we own this facility and can move somewhere else.”