St. Petersburg’s Pier Park now simply the St. Pete Pier

Monday, November 30, 2015 6:36pm

ST. PETERSBURG — The name Pier Park hasn’t had much luck in St. Petersburg. Back in 1984, voters soundly defeated a $72 million proposal by that name.

Fast-forward more than three decades and another project with the same name has been chosen to carry on St. Petersburg’s downtown waterfront tradition. The problem: Now, someone else is claiming the name and says St. Petersburg is infringing on its trademark rights.

The St. Joe Co., the owner, developer and manager of thousands of acres of real estate in Florida, notified Mayor Rick Kriseman in June of the issue.

For a while, though, the city kept using the Pier Park name. In July, its “New St. Pete Pier” website announced that the City Council had approved a contract for Pier Park. In September, it noted that a request for proposals had been issued for a restaurant at Pier Park.

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