St. Pete City Council gives go-ahead to Edge Collective hotel, The Perry condos

Two downtown St. Petersburg development projects have won backing from the St. Petersburg City Council.

Council members, meeting Dec. 12 as the Community Redevelopment Agency, determined that The Perry, a 12-story, 20-unit condominium planned for the 100 block of 4th Avenue Northeast, is consistent with redevelopment plans for the area. They made the same determination for a seven-story hotel that’s part of the Edge Collective project planned for the 1200 block of Central Avenue

Both projects were approved unanimously with no opposition.

The hotel that was approved by the CRA will anchor Edge Collective, a mixed-use development from PTM Partners that also includes a food hall, retail and co-working space.

A central component of the Edge Collaborative will be a mid-block retail arcade/paseo that will lead directly to Tropicana Field.

EDGE Business District Association executive director Barbara Voglewede endorsed the Edge Collective project, saying the limited-service hotel will be a business feeder and a “catalyzer” for the community.

“This is another one of the properties in our district that’s really critical,” Voglewede said. “It’s especially important as a boutique hotel. That’s a business mix we don’t have yet. In addition, there’s a business incubator and shared and affordable office space in the existing building next door, another thing we don’t have currently.”

The hotel will be branded as a Marriott Moxy and cost $23.7 million. It will have 161 rooms and 4,500 square feet of commercial space. The project includes an open-air arcade between the hotel and the four-story building next door. That existing building will have the food hall on the lower two floors and the co-working space on the upper two floors.

City Council Chair Charlie Gerdes said he is impressed with the innovation and creativity in the project.

“I hope this is the future of how buildings populate our urban center, with the courtyards and the pedestrian connections,” Gerdes said.

A rendering of The Perry

The condo project, The Perry, at 126 and 136 4th Ave. N.E., will replace two structures currently on the site. One of them, currently operating as a bed-and-breakfast, has been designated as a local historic landmark. Developer JMC Communities is paying to relocate that building. The other building will be demolished.

The Perry has a construction cost of $14 million. The ground floor will have a lobby and enclosed parking, with more parking on the second floor, and 20 dwelling units on floors 3 through 12.

The building, with an art deco design, is consistent with other projects in the area, including 300 and 400 Beach Drive and The Bliss, said Corey Malyszka, urban design and development coordinator.

City Council member Ed Montanari, the incoming Council Chair, noted the project pays homage to Perry Snell, who developed much of northeast St. Petersburg and worked to preserve the city’s waterfront. “I’m glad the developer tied in the history of St. Petersburg into this development,” Montanari said.

The two projects are among more than a dozen active developments in the works downtown, including a 25-story mixed-use building at the southeast corner of 1st Avenue North and 5th Street. The developer, the DeNunzio Group LLC, bought the property, currently a parking lot, from Christ United Methodist Church for $5.3 million, according to a deed filed Dec. 16 in Pinellas County.

The project includes retail, office, hotel and residential space, as well as at least 240 parking spaces on four levels. The city and DeNunzio last month agreed to a public-private partnership on the parking.