Major downtown St. Pete landlord defers April rent for retail tenants

Tricera Capital is offering to postpone April rent for all its retail tenants as they cope with the restrictions on businesses imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19 coronavirus.

Tricera, a Miami-based real estate investment firm, is a major landlord in downtown St. Petersburg, owning property on several blocks along Central Avenue, as well as 17th Street South, 1st Avenue South and in the EDGE District.

Scott Sherman

“We don’t know where this is going or how it will play out, but we have a lot of local and small  businesses on Central. We’re trying to be proactive here and give them peace of mind so we’ve decided to defer everyone’s April rent,” said Scott Sherman, Tricera co-founder and managing principal. “All the retail tenants will not be obligated to pay rent for April for now, and then we’ll assess and see what’s going on and case by case, we’ll have decide what to do going forward. For now it’s the right thing to do.”

Restaurants are operating at 50 percent seating capacity, under emergency orders from both the city and the state. The state also ordered bars and nightclubs closed until mid-April. But every small business is trying to figure out how it will keep the lights on, Sherman said.

Tricera is proposing to spread the deferred April rent out over the rest of the term of a tenant’s lease, Sherman said.

“We still have bills to pay and at this point I don’t know if our lenders will give us any relief on our side, but we need to at least help soften the blow,” he said.

Tricera is well-capitalized as a company and its Central Avenue assets are strong, he said.

“We have to manage through these kind of short-term issues that come up. This is unprecedented,” Sherman said. “We’ve got to just figure it out together. It’s going to be a team effort. We’ll try to help.”

Closer look: Tricera’s St. Petersburg properties

658-670 Central Ave.

654 Central Ave.

1246 Central Ave.

433 Central Ave.

EDGE land

201 17th St. S.

2401-2437 Central Ave.

1100-1128 Central Ave.

2201-2253 1st Ave. S.