St. Petersburg businessman Bill Edwards died Thursday morning, following a brief illness. He was 81.
Edwards, whose birth name was Edward Francis Sylvia, was known for his 15-year stewardship (as Big3 Entertainment) of the city-owned Mahaffey Theater and his contributions to theater in education through the nonprofit Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts, which operated out of the theater.
He spent $2 million of his own money in Mahaffey Renovations.
Edwards bought the struggling Baywalk shopping plaza in 2011, renamed it Sundial, and after paying for extensive renovations, sold it in 2022.
He owned the Tampa Bay Rowdies between 2013 and 2018.
Raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts, he served with the United States Marine Corps in Vietnam, where he was wounded in combat and awarded the Purple Heart.
Edwards made his fortune through ownership of Mortgage Investors Corp., serving military veterans in the state of Florida.
This is a developing story, and will be updated.