First look at $85 million high-rise in downtown St. Pete
Developers have taken the wraps off the first renderings of a 28-story mixed-use project with a hotel, residences and office space planned for 450 1st Ave. N. in downtown St. Petersburg.
The project, by the DeNunzio Group, will be built on what currently is a parking lot for Christ United Methodist Church. PLDD 1st Avenue LLC, an entity associated with the DeNunzio Group, bought the property in December 2019 for $5.3 million. Construction costs are estimated at $85 million, according to a site plan filed with the city.
Related: Boston developer proposes mixed-use project one block from St. Pete City Hall
It’s one of the first projects to bring much-needed Class A office space to St. Petersburg, where demand still remains relatively high, despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that resulted in many office workers staying home to do their jobs.
The office vacancy rate in St. Pete’s central business district was 9.4 percent for the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the Q4 2020 office report from Cushman & Wakefield. That’s significantly lower than the 15.2 percent vacancy rate in Tampa’s central business district, and lower than the 14.5 percent vacancy rate in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, the report said.
The DeNunzio project, just one block from City Hall, will have 73,145 square feet of office space. It also will have 110 hotel rooms, 165 dwelling units, 47,615 square feet of retail space and a 456-space parking garage. The city and the developer are partnering on the parking garage, with the developer providing 240 parking spaces that will be owned by the city.
The building will be constructed as a “stacked tower sitting on top of an eight-story base,” the site plan said.
This rendering shows the stacked tower as it will appear from 4th Street North
The first floor will include the hotel and office lobby, residential lobby and commercial space. The second through ninth floors will be devoted to parking, with the ninth floor serving as the rooftop of the eight-story garage.
The west view from 5th Street North
Floors 10 through 14 will float above the ninth floor rooftop parking and include hotel space, amenity areas and office space.
A three-story open space will be on the east side of the 10th floor of the building.
The residential tower will be on the east side of the building. The hotel tower will be on the west side of the building.
Entrances to the residences (left) and to the hotel (right)
The hotel and office vehicular drop-off area will be on the west side of the property. Pedestrian access will be from 1st Avenue North.
The site plan is scheduled for a hearing Feb. 3 before the St. Petersburg Development Review Commission. City staff have recommended approval with several conditions, including a final review by the Community Redevelopment Agency.
A rendering of east view from Central Avenue
A rendering of the west view from Central Avenue
MICHAEL KRAMER
February 3, 2021at7:25 am
What are the condo cost? Who do we purchase through?
Dan
January 31, 2021at10:41 pm
Wow, that’s ugly!
Chuck
January 31, 2021at8:25 am
Proud to have been a construction lender for other high rise properties in other cities and this is probably one of the weakest designs I’ve seen. When people find a design confusing to the eye it leaves a negative subconscious bias. And thus bad architecture has a economic price in sub optimal occupancy levels. Hope the review committee recognizes this too.
Erik
January 29, 2021at8:01 pm
It’s going to continue to laudedale/Miami until you get rid of that whole city council and the mayor.. and don’t vote for anybody that’s on the present city council that’s running for mayor because you’re basically will have couple years of the same thing.
James
January 29, 2021at4:54 pm
Great to see the progress of the city. We own a few condo’s in the core and love the vibe and energy these projects bring. Lots of older building and houses still to be redeveloped. Future of st pete looks so bright!
Devin
January 29, 2021at8:33 am
Are the residential spaces scheduled to be rentals or privately owned condos?
Chase
January 28, 2021at9:07 pm
Wish they would stop trying to Lauderdale the Berg. So many cities across America have a strict set of guidelines that developers must follow to maintain the character and uniqueness of the city, except ours. No rhyme or reason, just dollar signs. Whoever keeps approving this stuff, we need to clean house.
Bill
January 28, 2021at5:39 pm
Argh!!! Architect dusted off some boiler plate plans and recycled them!
I hope DRC and/or staff send the developer back to the drawing board, They should be seeking for a building that compliments the area versus a facade that could be plopped into any Miami, Ft Laud, or a dozen other places. DTSP has a character and charm that has driven our relatively fast bounce-back. We need to preserve it.
Sean Reilly
January 28, 2021at4:20 pm
You should add a public comments section to your articles. In many cases, people are as interested in the comments related to an article as the article itself. I am not sure if my feed is just not showing the comments because I see the ability to submit comments as I am doing now but don’t see any posted (I am already subscribed). I was curious if other people find the design of this building as hideous as I do. Why would the city want something that looks like this to ruin the nice aesthetic that already exists?
Joe Hamilton
January 28, 2021at8:09 pm
Hi Sean – we moderate comments per our posting guidelines. As we are a small team, there is sometimes a delay before submitting comments and them going onto the site. On the flip side of that, we actually highlight comments on the homepage and in the daily spark via our Community Voices section.