Places This Week: Plans change for Sixty90 project; Saltaire is sold out

A weekly roundup of local real estate deals.

Saltaire units are sold out 

All of the 192 units in the 35-story luxury condominium building at 300 1st St. S. have sold. 

Saltaire is a new downtown hi-rise that’s being developed by The Kolter Group, the South Florida-based developer that built the ONE St. Petersburg and The Ritz-Carlton Residences. 

A rendering of Saltaire from the west view. Image: The Kolter Group.

The condo units were priced from the low $800,000s. 

When completed in early 2023, the building will feature an upscale amenity deck with an infinity pool on the 7th floor. It will also include 10,000 square feet of ground-level retail space. 

SB Architects of Miami and Kast Construction are part of the development team. Smith & Associates Real Estate is the exclusive listing agent, working from a sales office on Beach Drive. 

Sixty90 affordable housing project changes

The Sixty90 workforce housing project in St. Petersburg that would create over 100 workforce housing units has substantially scaled back the plans. 

The project at 6090 Central Ave., being developed by DDA Development and Backstreets Capital, initially entailed building 204 units with 90% dedicated to workforce housing. 

A rendering of Sixty90. Image: DDA Development 

Within the workforce housing units, 42 of the 204 units would be restricted to households making between 61-80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), while 141 units would cater to households earning between 80-120% of the AMI. The remaining 21 units were to be market-rate.

However, due to multiple challenges in the market, the 90% figure for workforce housing will dwindle to 20%. 

Bowen Arnold, manager and principal at DDA Development, said since conceiving the project, they have seen construction costs increase by more than 25%. He explained subcontractors had escalation clauses in their contracts, which also caused concern. 

“This impacted the ability to make the deal work and escalated to the point where it wouldn’t be financially sustainable,” he said. “We know we will still help alleviate the workforce housing issue, but we are disappointed we can’t do the 90%.” 

The project is currently in permitting. 

The development group was poised to receive $5 million of Penny for Pinellas funds for the development through the land acquisition program. Bowen said the group is not accepting the funds due to the altered plans. 

Here are some other workforce and affordable housing projects in the works. 

Tropicana Field developers alter plans

This month, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch submitted 15 additional questions to the Miami-based Midtown Development team and Sugar Hill Community Partners Group. The new questions focus on hot topics ranging from affordable housing, equity and the future of the Tampa Bay Rays to the potential impact on the interstate system.

Midtown Development’s rendering of the Trop site with the stadium. Image: City of St. Petersburg/Midtown Development.

Both development groups submitted 50-plus page responses to the questions. The prospective developers retained the basis of their original plans, but have reworked some factors and reiterated high points. 

For instance, one of the notable changes Sugar Hill made was its number of affordable housing units. The team has increased the number of affordable and workforce units by 1,416 (for a total of 2,401 units) in its Sugar Hill Parks scheme (with a Rays ballpark) and 1,550 (for a total of 3,165 units) in the Sugar Hill Commons scheme (without a Rays ballpark). 

A rendering of what the Trop site could look like if Sugar Hill Community Partners is selected as the developer. Image: Sugar Hill Community Partners.

The group also modified the size of a proposed convention center from a two-phase, 1.2-million-square-foot convention center to a 150,000-square-foot facility and a 500-key hotel. 

Midtown’s proposal includes an upfront $10 million payment to the city that can immediately be used to build affordable housing, provide down payment assistance, subsidize rents or invest in other programs that the mayor believes will best address the housing issue. Midtown’s proposal states it will build 6,000 to 8,000 residential units. 

Read more about the proposals here. 

Construction for Dunedin’s marketplace and food hall progresses  

Dunedin Mix, a food hall and marketplace in Dunedin, is nearly complete. 

The two-story building under construction at 990 Broadway Blvd. will be a food hall that’s similar to Armature Works in Tampa but on a much smaller scale. An advertisement for Dunedin Mix states it will have live music, a bar, open courtyard dining and retail vendors. The second level will have private offices, meeting rooms and coworking space.

Empad Architecture, the architecture firm working on the project, posted images of the progress on LinkedIn and said the project is about two months out from completion for the shell.

Brandon Stanley, the owner of Paramount Construction, the general contractor for the project, said he purchased the property several years ago and began construction last year. He said the group should be granted a certificate of occupancy in July, and then the tenants can move in and have 45 days to build out their spaces. The marketplace is expected to open in September. 

The building is fully leased with eight tenants, which have not been announced. 

Mirror Lake property is purchased 

A New York-based firm known for its multifamily developments has closed on a vacant site near Mirror Lake.

The New Jersey-based Arlington Avenue North LLC entity sold a property on the corner of Arlington Avenue N. and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street in a $10.75 million deal to Abacus Capital Group.

Mirror Lake. Photo from Google Maps.

The property the Abacus Capital Group purchased, under the LLC AMFPVI Saint Petersburg, is currently used as a parking lot.

Abacus, which has multiple regional offices, seeks to achieve attractive, risk-adjusted returns through market cycles by acquiring, repositioning, developing and actively asset managing multifamily properties on behalf of its investors, according to its website.

In Tampa, Abacus owns the Avion at Carrollwood. It also owns the Sage Palmer Ranch in Sarasota, the Mosaic at Miramar Town Center and St. Tropez in Plantation.