{"id":361081,"date":"2026-08-02T22:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/361081\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T22:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:45:08","slug":"st-pete-looks-to-move-from-tents-at-pier-marketplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/361081\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete looks to move from tents at Pier Marketplace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The city of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stpete.org\/government\/meetings___agendas\/recorded_city_meetings.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Petersburg<\/a> is considering changes to the Pier Marketplace that could replace some vendor tents with permanent kiosks over several years.<\/p>\n<p>The marketplace currently includes seven kiosks and 21 tents for local businesses. The city is considering replacing three tents a year with new kiosks, a process that could continue for seven years.<\/p>\n<p>Aquia Holmes, the owner of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.localshops1.com\/uniquely-handcrafted\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Uniquely Handcrafted<\/a>, has operated her tent at the Pier Marketplace since 2020. She said a kiosk could make day-to-day operations easier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe convenience of having a kiosk as opposed to a tent is so high because you don\u2019t have to be doing this every time. You know, back and forth, back and forth,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n<p>Holmes said kiosks could also add security and help protect merchandise from damage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy merchandise gets damaged because this is not the best; the tents are not made to be permanent,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer Schultz, owner of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merchantstpete.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Merchant<\/a>, said she previously operated from a kiosk from 2020 to 2022. She supports moving away from tents, saying kiosks give the marketplace a more professional appearance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt looks a lot more professional than a tent that has to be set up, set down, set up, set down,\u201d Schultz said.<\/p>\n<p>However, Schultz said she does not want the city to use the same kiosk design.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing in Florida, there were quite a few challenges with the kiosk. They were leaking a lot. Initially, when it rained, you got to close them up and run for cover,\u201d Schultz said.<\/p>\n<p>Holmes said she hopes the city communicates more with vendors before making any changes. She said she still has questions about how kiosks would be assigned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to be on the basis of first-come, first-served because I\u2019ve been here six years. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to be the one who is getting or a new person that is coming,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n<p>The city says each kiosk lasts 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>The Pier Marketplace is open Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The city of St. Petersburg is considering changes to the Pier Marketplace that could&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2031,558,4628,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,14104],"class_list":["post-361081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-local-business","tag-business","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-topic-latest-local-business-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361081","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=361081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}