Jason Jensen, President & CEO, WJ Architects, LLC

June 2026 — In an interview with Invest:, Jason Jensen, president and CEO of Wannemacher Jensen Architects (WJ Architects), discussed resilient redevelopment, adaptive reuse, and preserving Tampa Bay’s urban identity. “If we don’t really encourage good design at the pedestrian level, then we lose the texture and fabric of our cities,” Jensen said.

What key developments or milestones have had the biggest impact on the firm over the past 12 months?

Over the last 12 months, we have continued focusing more on municipal and institutional work and insulating ourselves from the impact of the housing market. Even with the slowdown in housing, we have seen opportunities from developers looking at St. Petersburg in particular, including the potential development of the Historic Gas Plant District.

We are also seeing institutions looking at potential partners to access value in their properties. School districts are looking at opportunities, and churches are looking at the potential for adding affordable housing to their properties. There are still opportunities, but they require more complex structures and collaboration among multiple parties to make projects viable in the market.

How does Tampa Bay fit into your firm’s long-term growth strategy?

Tampa Bay is central to our long-term growth strategy. Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg are our headquarters where we have been for over three decades. We have a strong presence on both sides of the bay, with offices in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota. We have also had success in West Palm Beach and Miami.

We opened an office in Greenville, South Carolina, so we are looking at opportunities through the Carolinas, which is a growing area as well. But Tampa Bay is home. We want to grow from here and continue to be bullish on Tampa Bay.

What trends are shaping architecture and urban development in Tampa Bay, particularly around mixed-use, hospitality, civic, and waterfront projects?

We are working on an interesting district in St. Petersburg, the Salt Creek Innovation District, and looking at what the next steps are for traditionally industrial areas such as boatyards. That is a major debate topic when 42% of St. Petersburg is in a coastal high-hazard area.

The question is how to encourage redevelopment in a more resilient way and how to incentivize resilience. We are working with the city to encourage properties to be redeveloped in ways that resist flooding and sustain hurricanes.

It may seem counterintuitive to incentivize more development in these areas. But if we do not, then the existing buildings will remain as they are, and when we do have a major storm, those buildings will not be there. It is about looking at responsible ways to develop our waterfront.

Resilience is not always tied together with zoning. If you have industrial spaces on the water, how do you encourage redevelopment? In industrial areas, you can incentivize more development and replace buildings with taller structures raised above floodplains.

How is your firm approaching adaptive reuse and redevelopment projects?

We had an interesting project recently, the St. Pete Athletic Club, which was seven warehouse buildings previously used for art. We transformed them into a pickleball club and high-end restaurant. It is not your normal pickleball club.

I think you are seeing more recreational use of industrial spaces. Industrial uses are moving out of some of those areas because land value has increased to a point where businesses can build larger facilities outside downtown cores and repurpose or sell those buildings for higher-value uses.

The Warehouse Arts District in St. Petersburg has an upzoning overlay allowing redevelopment to occur. Hospitality is also moving into areas that were not traditionally used for hospitality. You do not have to be on Central Avenue anymore. You can go to a brewery or pickleball club outside of Central Avenue, and that can still become a destination.

As property values have increased, it is creating opportunities for adaptive uses. People want offices in warehouse-type districts, which was not always seen as desirable. Previously, people wanted class-A office space, but office rents are very high. If you can lower your rent while still having an interesting, creative space, that is valuable.

St. Petersburg in general is low on office space, so it is forcing people to be more creative about where they work.

How do you see Tampa Bay’s architectural identity evolving as the region continues to grow and attract new residents and businesses?

We have to fight against the deterioration of our pedestrian streetscape. Traditionally, what people love about walkable cities, whether Franklin Street in Tampa, Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, or Beach Drive, is the rhythm of storefronts, hospitality, and the diversity of architecture and businesses. That is the richness of the urban fabric.

We need to find ways to ensure that when an entire block is redeveloped, that fabric is not lost. We are seeing some entire blocks become homogenous at the storefront level.

We have done things from a zoning standpoint to encourage storefront diversity, where businesses are required to have different-sized storefronts along pedestrian corridors. Developers also need to recognize that if you have a more walkable streetscape and more interesting storefronts, people will walk farther and frequent that part of the street more often.

There is also the potential to elevate the streetscape and invest in pedestrian corridors with benches, landscape, and paving textures. Water Street did a great job paying attention to the pedestrian experience and enhancing that environment with better materials and traffic-calming elements.

If we don’t encourage good design at the pedestrian level, then we lose the texture and fabric of our cities.

Midtown in Tampa is an interesting example. One thing it did was not dictate the storefronts. That responsibility belonged to the tenants. When you walk through Midtown, the storefronts are vastly different because of that. Giving tenants an opportunity to create their own brand identity instead of imposing one homogenous design is a really interesting idea.

What is your outlook for the architecture and development landscape in Tampa Bay, and what are your key goals and priorities for the coming years?

We are hoping for a calm storm season. There are short memories among residents and buyers when it comes to hurricanes, but we need a few years off. If we have a calm season, I think we will see a plateau in some of our housing.

St. Petersburg is still lacking approximately 30,000 units to meet demand, according to a study by the Downtown Partnership. That creates a dialogue around whether we are overbuilding or simply understanding how many people we have to serve. I like the idea of adding enough housing to help temper pricing and create more opportunities for people to live in this area.

The city of St. Petersburg added $42 million to the Affordable Housing Fund, which will allow opportunities to come to fruition. Every affordable housing project needs support, and the more opportunities we have, the more we can support the hospitality sector. If we cannot keep those jobs staffed and workers in our community, those sectors are potentially at risk.

The most exciting thing for Tampa Bay right now is the Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment. It is about how the city transforms itself with a large district coming online and how we do that right. Can we use it as a catalyst for the future and secure housing at all levels?

It is also an opportunity to increase arts tourism through new museums. We were the designer for the Pier Approach, and we saw that if we invest in design and vision, we can attract visitors while also supporting locals with a place they can use.

We started referring to the Pier Approach as the city’s “living room,” and I believe the Gas Plant redevelopment will serve a similar role.It is where people gather as a community, even without an agenda. That was the shift from a purely tourist destination to a place that supports the community.

Great communities support additional investment. Companies can choose anywhere now. Great places to truly live, work, and play support the continuation of companies and people migrating to our area. But we cannot forget to lift up our own residents and give them opportunities for work and opportunities to live here without being pushed out. That balance of attracting outside investment while supporting our community is our main focus.