{"id":296692,"date":"2026-06-05T02:53:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/296692\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T02:53:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:53:52","slug":"st-pete-pier-events-promoter-contract-in-limbo-over-cost-noise-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/296692\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete Pier events promoter contract in limbo over cost, noise concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. Petersburg City Council on Thursday decided to defer a vote on a new contract with Pier Events LLC, the events promoter of the St. Pete Pier over cost concerns and unhappiness about the company\u2019s response to noise complaints.<\/p>\n

The cost of the contract would nearly triple<\/a> compared to the agreement in place since 2022. Between potential budget cuts and lingering complaints over thumping bass heard miles away from an electronic music festival held on the pier in December, four out of eight council members signaled discontent with the contract in an hourlong debate.<\/p>\n

Rather than risk an outright rejection, council member Copley Gerdes, an ally of Mayor Ken Welch, motioned to defer the vote, which was approved unanimously.<\/p>\n

That move allows the city to further negotiate the contract rather than starting a bidding process all over. It may mean having less programming at the pier or potentially taking some of that work in-house, which city officials said would cost more than the proposed contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get to where it\u2019s revenue neutral,\u201d Gerdes said. \u201cThe only way to do that is to activate it and continue to grab fees and make sure that we\u2019re sharing in some of that revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s contract with Pier Events would have increased from $90,000 to $250,000 annually. City officials said that price was \u201csignificantly lower\u201d than the other two bids that came in. Pier Events is projected to bring in $165,000 in ticket fees this year from bigger events, which help subsidize smaller, free events.<\/p>\n

Council chairperson Lisset Hanewicz and the downtown council member Gina Driscoll were sure no votes. They couldn\u2019t square that increase. City departments are cutting budgets and bracing for a $75 million hit should voters approve Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 plan to cut property taxes for owner-occupied homes claimed as primary residences.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, young folks say the math isn\u2019t mathing,\u201d Hanewicz said.<\/p>\n

Council members Mike Harting and Corey Givens couldn\u2019t get past that math while subsidizing pieroperating costs by about $1.5 million annually.<\/p>\n

Council member Deborah Figgs-Sanders had an issue with a Facebook post written by Pier Events manager, Ferdian Jap. After the We Belong Here festival<\/a> racked up 62 noise complaints and a written warning from police, Jap wrote that he hoped the city \u201cdoesn\u2019t buckle to the noise complaints\u201d and brings back the festival.<\/p>\n

Jap attended Thursday\u2019s meeting but did not speak publicly. He said his two full-time employees and three part-time staff, working as energy drink company Red Bull sets up its cliff diving event, watched council members debate from their phones and were worried about their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had to calm everybody down so they don\u2019t leave, which would effectively shut down the events,\u201d Jap said. \u201cWe\u2019re still working even though we don\u2019t have a contract. That\u2019s how dedicated I am to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jap said there was room to negotiate and look at raising the fees for tickets so the city can make more money.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal has always been to generate revenue for the pier,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully we can figure out a way to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Petersburg City Council on Thursday decided to defer a vote on a new contract with Pier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2153,124991,46964,124990,124989,202,204,203,1676,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-296692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-council-members","tag-events-promoter","tag-noise-complaints","tag-pier-events","tag-pier-events-llc","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-pete-pier","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}