Connect with us

Know

St. Petersburg veterinarian buys Warehouse Arts District landmark

Margie Manning

Published

on

2200 2nd Ave. S.

Dr. Richard Wilkes, a veterinarian and entrepreneur, has purchased the building that houses Vintage Marché in the Warehouse Arts District.

Wilkes bought the property, at 2200 2nd Ave. S., for $2.8 million, according to a deed recorded Sept. 25 in Pinellas County. He bought the property through one of his companies, RWTV LLC.

Wilkes did not respond to several requests from St. Pete Catalyst for comment.

The 35,000-square-foot building was built in 1946, Pinellas County property records show. At one time, it was a piano factory. The most recent owner, prior to Wilkes, was real estate developer Phil Farley, who bought it in 2018 for $1.85 million.

Brocante Vintage Market operated in the building for about five years until last December, when Vintage Marché opened in the space. Vintage Marché is a monthly vintage market.

The building is located an area that’s zoned for industrial use. A Miami developer, Joe Furst, founder and managing principal of Place Projects, has proposed a new zoning category, industrial mixed-use, or IMIX, which would allow arts-related retail, office and residential uses.


Related: Developer wants 22nd Street South to be bridge, not a moat


In 1998, Wilkes founded a St. Petersburg company, Purchasing Services Inc., which offers veterinarians an opportunity to save money through group purchases. The company was acquired by Henry Schein Animal Health in 2016. In early 2019, Purchasing Services changed its name to PSIvet. In 2019, HSAH merged with Vets First Choice, an online pharmacy and prescription management platform, creating Coventrus (Nasdaq: CVET), with 5,000+ member practices.

Wilkes also was a member of the board of directors of the former Fourth Street Banking Co., the parent of Freedom Bank in St. Petersburg, which sold to Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida (Nasdaq: SBCF) in August for $41.7 million. Wilkes controlled 1.1 million Fourth Street Banking shares, or 9.47 percent of the stock outstanding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Continue Reading
2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Avatar

    Rose Smith-Hayes

    October 6, 2020at9:08 pm

    It appears the building will be gone or be a major part of something else, Interesting.

  2. Avatar

    Christina Bernsdorff

    October 6, 2020at5:43 pm

    So what are they planning to do with the building?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By posting a comment, I have read, understand and agree to the Posting Guidelines.

The St. Pete Catalyst

The Catalyst honors its name by aggregating & curating the sparks that propel the St Pete engine.  It is a modern news platform, powered by community sourced content and augmented with directed coverage.  Bring your news, your perspective and your spark to the St Pete Catalyst and take your seat at the table.

Email us: spark@stpetecatalyst.com

Subscribe for Free

Share with friend

Enter the details of the person you want to share this article with.