St. Petersburg’s LGBTQ-friendly Flamingo Resort & Entertainment Complex is set to be redeveloped as an apartment complex, but not before one last party at the end of the month.
Flamingo’s General Manager Jon Jusino took to Gay Safe Haven Radio on Monday to address the rumor.
“It’s not that we’re closing… we’re redeveloping,” a somber Jusino said on the broadcast. He added that the Flamingo’s current owners will own the redeveloped apartments, which a permit says could be an eight-story, 245-unit complex.
July 28 will be the last edition of Flamingo’s famed Sunday Tea Dance, and an even bigger party is set for July 31.
“It’s going to be a big hurrah, a getaway… a finale so to speak. Everyone will be here to make sure this last hurrah is anything and everything you ever wanted,” Jusino said.
An August 6 auction will allow you to buy your very own piece of Flamingo Resort & Entertainment Center history, but the sale also marks the end of the complex’s 10-year run serving St. Petersburg’s LGBTQ community.
Jusino, for his part, seems hell bent on making sure that his employees and entertainers find new gigs as news on Flamingo’s future location shakes out.
According to Watermark, Jusino told an audience at Flamingo’s Showtime Saturday that no one knows where the new location is going to be or when it might open.
“... whether it’s three months from now that we open up a new location [or] a year from now, I have no clue,” Jusino said.
“To the entertainers, I will help you find a new venue for your events. That is who I am. That is my job, you are my people. I would love to be there for each and every one of you,” he added. “As far as my employees, I am heartbroken. I am displaced in how I should feel, but from the bottom of my heart, my employees have been the most respectful and honorable people I have ever worked with.”
Jusino asked anyone who can help to contact him by phone at (727) 641-0533.
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