Trevor Burgess and Gary Hess give $5 million to support St. Pete Free Clinics new flagship facility in south St. Pete

St. Petersburg philanthropists Trevor Burgess and Gary Hess win committed $5 million to St. Pete Free Sanatorium, supporting the nonprofit’s growth as it transforms a ragged furniture retailer right into a original hub for food assistance and healthcare in south St. Pete.

The reward will encourage advance SPFC’s deliberate flagship facility at 2200 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue South, where the ragged Badcock furniture retailer is being renovated to bring groceries, clinical care, education, and community assets collectively below one roof.

Park & Eleazer Construction is finishing the renovation, with construction anticipated to wrap up in leisurely spring 2027.

For Burgess and Hess, the contribution builds on more than a decade of involvement with the organization, origin with a $1,000 donation in 2012 and rising through volunteer service, board management, and a old $1 million reward.

“Gary and I win seen SPFC reply thoughtfully and decisively because the need for food, healthcare, and steadiness pork up has grown,” Burgess mentioned in a data release. “We judge in Care Ahead because it pairs daring ambition with a proven potential to lift. This reward is an investment in the of us of Pinellas County and in a model of care that may perhaps perhaps change the trajectory of a life.”

Their $5 million commitment helps Care Ahead, SPFC’s 5-year, $100 million initiative to originate bigger food security and healthcare salvage admission to all the procedure through Pinellas County.

The south St. Pete facility is a central share of that effort. Plans demand expanded food distribution, clinical care suites, and original community spaces, including a Records Center for studying and connection.

“By integrating nutritious food, healthcare, education, and navigation companies below one roof, SPFC objectives to encourage neighbors contend with instant needs whereas making improvements to long-timeframe health outcomes, including the prevention and administration of continual illness,” Sheryl Zeitler, SPFC’s Chief External Affairs Officer, knowledgeable St. Pete Rising.

For Hess, the mission builds on what he has witnessed whereas volunteering with the organization. He joined SPFC’s board of administrators in 2019 and started volunteering progressively in 2021, helping distribute groceries on the Jared S. Hechtkopf Neighborhood Food Bank, in step with the nonprofit.

“Volunteering has allowed me to meet the of us leisurely the numbers and win out about what decent salvage admission to to nutritious food can mean for a family,” Hess mentioned in the discharge. “The original facility will enable SPFC to join neighbors not most productive with groceries, but additionally with healthcare and plenty of assets that may perhaps perhaps encourage them circulation towards increased steadiness. It is deeply most important to us to encourage originate that seemingly.”

Burgess, who serves as Chairman and CEO of St. Pete-based mostly Neptune Flood, has additionally helped have interaction the alternate community through volunteer initiatives organized throughout the corporate, in step with SPFC.

In 2024, the couple gave $1 million to the nonprofit and challenged the community to collectively match their contribution. SPFC named its volunteer program the Gary Hess Volunteer Products and companies Program in recognition of Hess’s ongoing service.

“Trevor and Gary win walked alongside SPFC for more than a decade, as donors, advocates, volunteers and leaders,” mentioned Jennifer Yeagley, SPFC’s CEO. “Their unparalleled reward reflects a deep concept of every the urgency of nowadays’s needs and what’s seemingly when care is attached in one plot.”

The broader Care Ahead initiative dedicates $80 million to program growth, including $60 million for food security and $20 million for healthcare salvage admission to. One other $10 million will fund capital enhancements, including the south St. Pete facility and food distribution infrastructure, whereas $10 million will pork up SPFC’s endowment.

By 2030, SPFC objectives to reach 260,000 Pinellas County residents with food assistance and originate bigger healthcare salvage admission to to twenty,000 uninsured adults and their families through its organization-wide efforts.

“This investment will encourage manufacture a lasting community resource where neighbors can win nourishment, therapeutic, and gleaming pork up with dignity,” Yeagley mentioned.

Extra data regarding the initiative is on hand on SPFC’s Care Ahead web pages.