Orange Station developers retool office plan, share new rendering for vision

The development group behind the planned mixed-use Orange Station development in the EDGE District is revising the vision plan. 

Edge Central Development Partners, a joint venture group involving St. Petersburg-based J Square, Tampa-based DDA Development and others, plans to now add four stories of office space to the Orange Station at the Edge project, which is the site of the old St. Petersburg Police headquarters. 

The four additional floors will create 55,000 square feet of office space and will increase the building’s height to 16 stories. 

The original lease and development agreement, approved last year, called for a minimum of 100,000 square feet of Class A office space, at least 56 market-rate condos and 30 workforce-rate rental apartments, 22,000-square-feet of retail and a 600-car parking garage. 

The freestanding Class A office building was slated to be developed on the northeast pad; however, the pandemic has altered plans as many companies can’t predict the future of the workforce and office needs. 

“We have been in discussions with users to anchor the building, but there’s still some hesitation about space because of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Cushman Wakefield Senior Director Wendy Giffin told the St. Pete Catalyst. Giffin is charged with leasing the building’s office component. 

She added that it’s a challenge to construct such a large building without first securing an anchor tenant.  

Giffin explained the developer has instead elected to add four floors of office space above the ground floor retail space and below the condo units.  

“This will reduce the risk of building a 100,000-square-foot speculative office building, and is also able to accommodate different users’ needs,” Giffin said, explaining the spaces could be combined for a larger user.

The offices will front Central Avenue and will feature balconies that overlook the Tropicana Field site. 

Meanwhile, the revised plans mean the pad initially planned for the freestanding office building is still available as a build-to-suit building and could be used for a corporate headquarters or medical office space, or a hotel, Giffin said. 

The number of condo units and workforce apartments has also changed. The initial 56 planned units will now be 61 for-sale condos.

The square footage for the condos ranges from 1,150 to 1,800 square feet. The penthouse level will feature three units between 1,800 to 2,400 square feet. 

There will be 42 workforce apartments. The developers will still plan for more than 10,000 square feet of retail along Central Avenue and 1st Avenue North, as well as the original plans for building a parking garage.

“Once we have the demolition of the police station, we will announce our sales efforts,” Bowen Arnold, manager and principal of DDA Development LLC, told the Catalyst. 

“We feel like this is a better building design that will work well with the plaza,” Arnold said. 

At the corner of Central Avenue and 13th Street will be a new public plaza with a 1,500-square-foot signature “jewel box” retail space, which would be ideal for a restaurant tenant, Arnold said. The group is also trying to attract local businesses as retailers for the ground floor of Orange Station.