Place
Historic church faces demolition after City says no
A husband-and-wife duo’s ambitious plans to transform a neglected, decaying 100-year-old religious landmark in St. Petersburg into a unique event space are now crumbling like the institution’s red bricks.
Noam Krasniansky bought the Euclid Methodist Church, also known as the Euclid Mansion, for $1.1 million in August 2023. The Catalyst obtained adaptive reuse documents in February. If approved, the church would host weddings and special events as it did in the “Roaring (19)20s.”
The city’s Community Planning and Preservation Commission (CPPC) recently rejected Krasniansky’s passion project. He fears the proposed venue, dubbed The Treehouse, will now meet a wrecking ball.
“This is the last chance this church has,” Krasniansky said. “Here is the crazy thing – you have a commission in charge of saving and preserving historical properties in St. Petersburg, and they voted against it.
“If it wasn’t a tragedy for me, it’s kind of ridiculous.”
A rendering of a restored Euclid Methodist Church. Screengrab, city documents.
The church opened in 1926 at 919 10th Ave. N and received a historic designation in 2004. City documents state it has remained vacant since 2005.
Krasniansky and his wife, Irene, have founded multiple companies and appeared on TV’s Shark Tank. The couple moved to the area in early 2023 and “fell in love with the building.”
The Krasniansky’s sold their Los Angeles home and used the proceeds to purchase the church. They subsequently sunk over $300,000 into its restoration.
While the brick exterior needed minor repairs and strengthening, the interior has succumbed to black mold and requires extensive renovations. Recent hurricanes and the CPPC’s disapproval halted progress.
“We didn’t expect they wouldn’t want to save the building,” Krasniansky said. “Tell me, who will buy this building after they disapproved of something that makes sense? I am stuck.”
The Treehouse would host up to 184 guests. The couple plans to convert its mezzanine into a 40-seat tearoom with light food service.
The reimagined facility would offer seven suites with forestry-related monikers to house overnight event guests. Krasniansky previously noted the couple planted “over a quarter of a million trees ourselves with our other endeavors.”
The three-story church is adjacent to a gas station, automotive shop and painting business along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. Single-family homes in the Euclid St. Paul neighborhood abut the facility to its north.
Some neighbors credited the couple for saving the building and keeping the property from becoming multi-family housing. The couple, with local land-use expert Todd Pressman, requested a special exception for parking requirements and zoning amendments.
Recent hurricanes have exacerbated the building’s interior and exterior issues. Photo provided.
Neighbors with noise and parking concerns petitioned against the project. Krasniansky noted the nearly 14,000-square-foot building once welcomed 800 people on Sundays.
Preserve the ‘Burg wrote a letter in support. City staff recommended approval of the adaptive reuse plans and land use changes. However, the Nov. 12 CPPC hearing ended in a 3-3 vote that left the project in limbo.
Krasniansky provided several documents supporting his case. Those included a November 1926 St. Petersburg Times article touting the church as an ideal event venue.
A sound study proved that immediate neighbors could not hear noise above 72 decibels outside the church, roughly the loudness of a typical conversation. The test used 85-95 decibels, the average sound level during stadium football games.
“Sound is not an issue because the church is made of masonry and absorbs all the waves,” Krasniansky said. “We are also proposing using curtains that absorb sound … with sound buffing floors on the stage and bass absorbers on the interior corners of the church.”
An independent parking study notes the facility must provide 42 parking spaces to meet city requirements. However, the property would feature six standard, two disabled and one rideshare parking space.
Krasniansky would designate a pick-up and drop-off area to mitigate the lack of parking. He also secured letters of intent (LOI) from four nearby businesses to utilize 168 off-site spaces.
However, CPPC members said the agreements “have no teeth.” Krasniansky said he was dumbfounded and called that “a normal real estate transaction.”
“I got a parking agreement with BayCare (Hospital) for 125 cars before the meeting,” he added. “I don’t think they even saw that.”
An overhead map of the property at 919 10th Ave. N. Screengrab, city documents.
Krasniansky noted that the city has reduced parking requirements for developments in certain areas. A recently approved 13-story hybrid hotel and apartment tower with 120 units will feature 12 vehicle spaces.
“Our church is only about three minutes from downtown,” Krasniansky said. “Nobody is going to really drive.”
The institution’s previous owners faced similar opposition and withdrew their adaptive reuse plans in 2019. Krasniansky cannot continue resuscitating the building without an end goal.
He welcomes stakeholders to tour the church and brainstorm a path forward. “For me, it’s not about money, really,” Krasniansky said.
“I believe a place like this is a little sacred and special. But they’re forcing me to think that the only solution is demolition.”
Jolen Horvath
November 30, 2024at7:19 pm
Sick and tired of living in a city that goes out of its way to put high rise housing that nobody can afford on every square inch of property by destroying all the things that made St Pete unique. $55 million to fix a stadium for a team that has had one foot out the door since they played their first game here, while failing miserably at being a city that continually lies about being preservation centered. But tell us again about the Gas Plant project that is all but dead in the water.
Cindy J
November 30, 2024at10:09 am
If there’s a petition to keep it from being demolished, I will sign. No more high rise condos that are ridiculously expensive for what people actually make working in the Tampa Bay Area. We should maintain the history and character of this area.
Rick Henry
November 28, 2024at7:34 pm
How can we organize to stop from being destroyed? I’m in
Dan Mayer
November 28, 2024at1:38 pm
This city has a bunch of money to virtue signal. Woke leftist garbage all over the place but doesn’t have enough money to save proper historic buildings through the city or deal with its growing homeless population and not letting big New York slowly by up and turn are small art community into. A cheap miami rip off clone This city has lost its plot.Greed has fully rooted
Jason
November 28, 2024at10:32 am
The city leaders of St.Pete want to tear everything down and build condos on every single square inch of the city!!
SHARON MOLINARO
November 28, 2024at10:17 am
A perfect location for another high rise! Urban planning?
Brandy B Stark
November 28, 2024at9:07 am
The spirits of St Petersburg would love to have a permanent paranormal museum for St petersburg. We’re looking for a historic building to protect and a church would be an interesting twist. I am dumbfounded at the city as they are tearing down so many historic properties to build condos. We are losing St Petersburg a property at a time.
monah
November 28, 2024at8:59 am
This is not the first time I’ve heard about a negative experience with St. Pete’s CPPC. Some of their decisions seem to undermine the goals of the commission to preserve history with their tendency of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Karin
November 28, 2024at8:58 am
As a wedding planner and Sales Director of a venue in Tampa- I hear from brides constantly that St Petersburg is sorely lacking in a variety of venues and most must travel to Tampa for their event, when a beach wedding doesn’t match their vision or an industrial /modern vision other St Petersburg venues offer. I’ve been following this property and think it would bring revenue to nearby businesses as well. I get the sound ordinance concerns- but by limiting subwoofers and communicating clearly with potential couples prior to contract this can be avoided. St Petersburg is a beautiful city and brides want to stay close by rather than traveling to Tampa. Also a wonderful spot for charity events etc. fingers crossed and toes that some sort of resolution can happen 🍁
Chun Chang
November 28, 2024at7:29 am
Don’t demolish. Preserve!! It is such beautiful building. It adds charms to our city. Cut the regulations, cut the rules, let the building live.
Cliff
November 28, 2024at3:45 am
The Community Planning and Preservation Commission has fumbled this one. What a perfect example of adaptive use for a commercial category that is highly needed – quality, historical, and lower cost event space near downtown.
The NIMBY-ers don’t understand that the alternative will likely be worse for them. A high density poorly built multifamily building comes with as many of not more neighborhood problems.
Shame to see an intelligent project shot down by myopic and small mindset people.
MARK MEGOWERS
November 28, 2024at1:38 am
Apparently it’s not what you know, it is WHO you know in St Pete.
Will Everett
November 27, 2024at11:10 pm
I grew up in the area where that is at. I think the committee needs needs to rethink their decision. That building has character, and I’ve always loved the old architecture. You’re a bit, these people need to understand we need to keep the older buildings around and stop building new s***
It’s called history.
You’ve already gotten rid of all the older buildings, and you’re still trying to build new ones in place of the older ones. Give me a break, yeah. These people are idiots.I can’t wait to get out of this city now. And I was born and raised here
Lucy Sage
November 27, 2024at6:08 pm
Indeed!
Carol Briam
November 27, 2024at4:53 pm
I love seeing this beautiful building every time I drive past it. It would be such a shame to tear down this landmark building, especially when an entrepreneurial couple has proven their commitment to renovating it. Surely the city should be able to work with the Krasnianskys to arrive at a solution that preserves this gorgeous structure.
Meiko Seymour
November 27, 2024at4:10 pm
Don’t demolish. I’d love to see it operating as it once did, as a church or maybe multi use that includes a church.