BILL EDWARDS
As an entrepreneur I loved listening to Bill’s life stories, his successes, etc. ….and he loved to tell them. When I heard that Bill had passed I was shocked. All I could think was, “How can a person of such strength and determination succumb to something as trivial as death?” His ripple, his wave of energy, will be felt forever. – Keith Matter
Bill Edwards, a businessman and philanthropist whose ambitions left a mark on St. Petersburg’s downtown, waterfront and performing arts community, died August 27, 2026, after a brief illness. He was 81.
To many residents, Edwards was the man behind Sundial St. Pete, the Tampa Bay Rowdies or a memorable night at the Mahaffey Theater. To thousands of local schoolchildren, his influence was something simpler: a bus ride to a live performance, perhaps their first time seeing a stage come alive.
Edwards built his fortune in the mortgage industry. A Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient, he founded Mortgage Investors Corp., a St. Petersburg company that specialized in refinancing home loans for fellow veterans. Its success gave him the resources to pursue projects across the city he had made his home.
In 2011, he purchased the struggling BayWalk shopping complex and set about remaking it as Sundial St. Pete. The renovated center reopened in 2014 with restaurants, shops and a prominent outdoor sundial. He later sold his interest in the property, but the project remained one of the most visible examples of his determination to invest in downtown St. Petersburg.
His interests extended to sports. Edwards bought the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 2013, and the team played at Al Lang Stadium during his ownership. Improvements to the waterfront venue helped adapt the former ballpark for soccer. He sold a controlling interest in the club to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018.
For St. Petersburg’s arts community, Edwards’ name became closely tied to the Mahaffey Theater. His company, Big3 Entertainment, managed the city-owned venue for 15 years. During that time, Edwards invested in improvements, programming and the theater’s place in the cultural life of the city. Performers came and went, but the Mahaffey became the center of a commitment that mattered deeply to him: giving children access to the arts.
Edwards founded the Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts in 2011. The foundation took over Class Acts, a program that brings students to live performances, and expanded its educational work through festivals, camps and outreach. When the Tampa Bay Lightning honored Edwards as a Community Hero in 2025, he directed the accompanying $50,000 grant to the foundation to help provide transportation for students. Removing the cost of a bus ride meant more children could attend.
His support reached beyond the theater. Edwards gave millions of dollars to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and supported other local organizations, including the Museum of Fine Arts. His public projects could be grand in scale, but his work with Class Acts reflected an understanding that access to art often begins with a practical decision: making sure a child can get through the door.
The end of Big3 Entertainment’s Mahaffey management agreement in May 2026 closed a significant chapter in Edwards’ life. In an interview with The Artisan Magazine that month, he acknowledged the sadness of leaving after 15 years. His attention, however, had turned to sustaining the foundation and its programs for young people.
Edwards described plans for a community arts center that could offer afterschool classes, summer camps, youth productions and other opportunities to learn both onstage and behind the scenes. He believed those experiences could teach children to practice, read, follow directions and make decisions. At 81, he spoke of ensuring that the foundation could continue its work as the legacy he would leave behind.
That legacy is spread across St. Petersburg. It is visible at Sundial and Al Lang Stadium, and in the memories of performances at the Mahaffey. It lives, too, in the less visible moments: a student discovering a love of music, a young performer stepping onto a stage or a classroom returning from a show with something new to talk about.
Bill Edwards helped build places where a city could gather. Through the foundation that bears his name, he also helped young people imagine what they might become. •
