Gallery 3100 prepares to open in September

Leasing will begin June 1 for Gallery 3100, a 122-unit apartment complex at the western edge of the Grand Central District.

The project, at 3100 Central Ave., expects to receive a temporary certificate of occupancy Sept. 25, said Roxanne Amoroso, principal at Mosaic Development LLC.

The apartments, which will include 17 workforce units, will fill a growing need in St. Petersburg for places to live. The city projects it will need 1,000 more housing units each year for the three decades between now and 2050 as the population grows by an estimated 24,000 people. Added housing supply helps stabilize prices, and in some cases will bring prices down.

Related: Kriseman: Downtown high-rise is one part of the housing solution for a growing St. Pete

Mosaic, in a joint venture with Brookview Realty Group, unveiled Gallery 3100 in July 2019. In April 2020, Newmark Knight Frank, a commercial real estate advisory firm, arranged a $16.1 million construction loan from Synovus Bank.

“The project financing closed right as Covid hit, when a lot of deals were dying because of Covid. We were very fortunate that we were so advanced that we were able to close. We’ve been off and running ever since,” Amoroso said.

St. Petersburg’s downtown is a destination area, with a rebuilt pier, an enhanced Beach Drive corridor, museums, restaurants and art galleries, she said. It’s a fun area where people want to live and the St. Petersburg Trolley, along with the upcoming SunRunner bus rapid transit line, extend the downtown core.

Gallery 3100 was among the first new housing developments to be located west of the downtown core on Central Avenue. It’s since been followed by Driftwood on Central, an 11-unit live-work development at 2875 Central Ave. and Six Point Row, with 19 townhomes at 2641 1st Ave. N., among others.

“Central Avenue is a growing path for commerce and entertainment and restaurants and a host of other things. There seems to be a great desire for Class A housing. We like to come in on what I’ll call the fringe, where we see the economic drivers, the employment drivers, coming in that direction very strongly, and we’re just outside of that footprint,” she said. “There’s not a lot of new product that is not super high-priced. This comes in more competitively priced yet it still delivers the same values and it’s one mile from all the activity.”

Of the 17 workforce apartments, half will be for tenants with household income at up to 80 percent of area median income, and the other half will be for those with household income at up to 120 percent of area median income.

“We build all of our units identically in finish, there is no difference between a workforce unit and a market rate unit, other than the rent,” Amoroso said. “There is a definite shortage of reasonably priced housing in this area, so we believe it will be very well received. There is a balance that has to occur for a developer to be able to absorb the loss in rent on the workforce units. We think being able to add workforce units allows some folks the luxury of living in downtown.”

Gallery 3100 is just a few blocks from Mosaic’s headquarters at 1763 1st Ave. N. It’s the smallest project Mosaic has done, on less than two acres. Amoroso calls it a labor of love. She grew up in St. Petersburg and this is her first St. Petersburg project.

Roxanne Amoroso

Amoroso is one of three partners and principals at Mosaic Development. She handles deal structure and finance. Marc Mariano focuses on project management, infrastructure, contractors and architects. Terry Wayland is in charge of leasing, operations, plans and finishes.

Both Amoroso and Mariano have a substantial resume in environmental remediation. Part of the Gallery 3100 site was heavily contaminated prior to development. The property previously had a pond on it; construction crews in the 1940s threw concrete and bricks into the pond, and there was contaminated soil. Mosaic removed the majority of the contaminated soil and put a concrete cap over some of it, using state tax credits to help pay for about half of the cleanup. The Department of Environmental Protection has signed off on the cleanup.

Mosaic’s footprint extends from north of Tampa, south to Naples and east to Florida’s Atlantic coast through Central Florida. The company typically builds three-to five story Class A apartment buildings, with 200-300 units and lots of amenities. The company just completed Mosaic at Oak Creek, a 273-unit project in Bonita Springs that’s on the market right now. It has a 288-apartment complex in downtown Kissimmee. Mosaic also is in the middle of negotiations for 200 acres in Florida and is looking for additional opportunities.

“We usually try to have about 800 to 1,000 units at a time while doing pre-development on the next project,” she said. “We don’t sell everything right away, but the majority of them we do. We come in, start construction, and by the time we finish construction, we’re teeing up the ones to replace them.”

Closer look: Gallery 3100

• Four stories

• 122 apartment units, consisting of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units

• Three-level parking structure and bike storage

• Amenities include a dog park and pet wash, pool and pool deck, coffee shop, co-working space and fitness center

• Partnership with the Duncan McClellan Gallery, which is incorporating artwork into the project

Gallery 3100 construction as of March 11, 2021 (Photo courtesy of Mosaic Development, Current Builders Inc. and AeroPhoto)