Historic Kenwood shopping center gets new life
Four years after buying the strip center that housed the former Georgie’s Alibi in Historic Kenwood, a developer has renovated the property and is looking for tenants.
The building, at 3100 3rd Ave. N., now is called “The Shoppes of Kenwood,” its original name from the 1950s. It has been completely gutted and now is like new, said Jenna Malowany, a commercial real estate specialist at KW Commercial. Malowany, who is co-listing the property with KW Commercial’s Hal Holder, described it as “luxury commercial real estate.”
Georgie’s Alibi, a bar that catered to LGBTQ patrons, closed in 2015. Since then, St. Pete’s urban center no longer is concentrated downtown, but has expanded west along Central Avenue and the streets around it. The Grand Central District, from 16th Street to 31st Street, has flourished with new businesses and housing, and there are hopes for the same for the newer Union Central District just to the west of Grand Central.
SunRunner, the planned Bus Rapid Transit system, will traverse 1st Avenues North and South through the area. New construction has brought 578 new apartments to the blocks surrounding The Shoppes of Kenwood property.
Philip Dobson Properties III LLC, which bought the building in 2016 for $520,000, divided it into six units, four of which are available for lease. The company installed all new plumbing, electric and heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems. All the restrooms are new and one of the units has a “second generation kitchen” that’s move-in ready, with a top-of-the-line hood and grease trap that normally costs thousands for a tenant to install, Malowany said.
The four units – which could be combined – have a total of nearly 7,500 square feet, with individual units ranging from 1,144 square feet to 2,329 square feet. The smallest unit is renting for $18 a square foot, with the others renting for $22 a square foot.
See the gallery below for some of the renovation highlights.
