Hundreds of apartments are headed for a former Raytheon site in St. Petersburg, where a Tampa developer that has spent more than two decades building large residential communities across Florida is making its first move into multifamily housing.
Metro Development Group and Porter Development will break ground Monday on the first 341 apartments at Azalea Cay, planned for 1501 72nd St. N. Of those homes, 102 will be workforce and affordable units, putting nearly 30% of the first phase into those categories, with $11.25 million in public investment from the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County helping back the project.
Metro did not break down how much each government contributed or provide the project’s total development cost in its announcement. The Tampa company, founded in 2003, has built its business around land development and master-planned communities, including Mirada and Angeline in Pasco County, which ranked among the country’s 30 top-selling master-planned communities in 2025, according to Metro.
Its first apartment project will pair conventional units with more than 100 workforce and affordable homes on the former Raytheon property. Metro did not provide rents, income restrictions or other eligibility requirements for those homes, nor did it disclose the number of buildings, apartment sizes, amenities or construction timeline for the first phase.
Construction is scheduled to formally begin with an 11 a.m. groundbreaking Monday, when St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, Pinellas County Commissioner Brian Scott and St. Petersburg City Councilmember Copley Gerdes are expected to join Metro principal Kartik Goyani, Porter Development’s Les Porter and Metro Vice President of Corporate Affairs Lisa Gibbings at the site.