Places This Week: Mindy Grossman, Outback Steakhouse, Stearns Bank, Blackstone

A well-known CEO has bought a new home in St. Petersburg. A 4^th Street retail center has a new owner. Stearns Bank sold its St. Petersburg branch and will lease back the site.

Here’s this week’s roundup of local real estate transactions.

Back in the ‘Burg

Mindy Grossman, the former CEO of HSN and current CEO of WW International, just bought a home in St. Petersburg. Grossman, as trustee of a family trust, paid $2.29 million for the home at 300 Rafael Blvd. on April 29, according to a deed file in Pinellas County.  The six bedroom, five-and-a half bath home has 5,258 square feet and is on Snell Isle, next to the Vinoy Golf Course, according to realtor.com. Grossman was represented by Tess Mullinax of Compass Florida. A request for comment was pending return.

Grossman resigned from HSN in St. Petersburg in 2017 and was named president and CEO of WW (then called Weight Watchers) later that year. She and her husband Neil previously owned a condo at Ovation on Beach Drive.

300 Rafael Blvd. (Photo credit: realtor.com)

Moving on

Mike Meidel, former director of Pinellas County Economic Development, sold his home in Old Northeast on April 30, the same day he retired. The home sold for $1.4 million, Pinellas County records show. The 2,533-square-foot home has four bedrooms and two-and-half baths, according to realtor.com.

More Mallah

The 4^th Street retail and office property that is home to Outback Steakhouse and Panera Bread sold on April 28 for $5.3 million. The buyer was Equity Management Partners, a real estate firm in Largo headed by entrepreneur Ben Mallah.

Related: Life For Sale’s Ben Mallah talks real estate, YouTube stardom and legacy

Mallah bought the property at 1914 4^th St. N. from Limestone Asset Management in Miami, which had a joint venture with its parent company, Orion Real Estate Group, both real estate investment firms based in Miami. The 23,031-square-foot center was 100 percent leased at the time of the sale to six tenants, ShoppingCenterBusiness.com reported. Mark Shellabarger and Ari Ravi of CBRE represented Limestone and Orion, which had owned the property since June 2016.

Banking on growth

Stearns Bank sold its St. Petersburg branch office at 7555 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N.  and adjacent vacant land for $3 million, according to a deed filed April 29 in Pinellas County. The buyer was Punta Rassa Capital, a commercial real estate developer in central Florida.

The bank has entered into a long-term lease with the new owner, said Rory Bidinger, chief marketing officer for Stearns Bank.

“The buyers have plans to expand on that property and bring in new business there. There’s opportunity for us that will give us greater exposure and bring in more traffic,” Bidinger told the St. Pete Catalyst. “We have no plans to leave. We’re excited about the new business and the added exposure that will bring.”

A request for comment from Punta Rassa Capital was pending return.

Stearns Bank, based in St. Cloud, Minnesota, entered the local market in 2009 when it bought two failed banks in Sarasota. It’s an independently owned bank with $2.2 billion in deposits and locations in Minnesota, Florida and Arizona.

Stearns Bank at 7555 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N.

Apartment sale

Revantage, a real estate services firm in Chicago that supports global investment firm Blackstone, has bought an apartment community in Largo. An entity called 1159 Clearwater Largo that’s associated with Revantage purchased the Rosery Apartments at 811 Rosery Rd. for $52.4 million on April 9, but the deed wasn’t filed in Pinellas County until April 30. Rosery Apartments have two buildings and a total of 110 units and were built in 2020, according to the Pinellas County property appraiser. The seller was PSREG CLR Owner, an entity associated with Rangewater Real Estate in Atlanta.

Rosery Apartments