Why this St. Pete condo project is moving when others aren’t

A construction crane rises above Mirror Lake, where workers are pouring concrete for a seven-story condominium building overlooking the water. For developer Will Conroy, that crane says something about the changing fortunes of downtown St. Petersburg.

Just a few years ago, cranes were a familiar sight across the skyline. Today, Conroy says his project, The Cade Residences, has the only active condominium construction crane downtown.

“There’s no doubt it’s harder today than it was three or four years ago,” said Conroy, president of St. Petersburg-based Backstreets Capital.

The Cade, a 15-unit luxury condominium building at 749 Burlington Avenue N., is approaching its final floor. Construction began in April, and Conroy expects the structure to top out in the coming weeks, with residences ready for occupancy in early 2028.

While larger projects elsewhere in the city have struggled to get started, Conroy said a series of decisions helped The Cade get off the drawing board.

One was keeping the building relatively small.

At seven stories, The Cade is less complicated and less expensive to construct than a 30- or 40-story tower. More contractors can compete for the work, and construction takes less time. The trade-off is that Backstreets has only 15 residences to sell, rather than the hundreds a larger building might accommodate.

The company also secured financing without relying on large institutional investors. Alabama-based ServisFirst Bank provided a conventional construction loan, while Backstreets Capital and a small group of friends-and-family investors supplied the remaining money.

Conroy said the company already owned the land, had its permits in place and had buyers under contract before construction began. It also locked in its construction price through a lump-sum agreement with its general contractor after completing the bidding process.

That meant the company had a firm estimate of its building costs before crews broke ground, rather than beginning construction with major expenses still unsettled.

Conroy said the cost of producing a condominium unit has roughly doubled since he developed the Salvador, another downtown St. Petersburg condominium building, about a decade ago.

An independent construction industry report from Turner & Townsend found that material costs nationwide rose 10.7% in the year ending in July 2026, even as construction spending declined 3.1% from a year earlier in June.

The figures illustrate a problem facing builders: Construction activity has slowed, but the cost of getting projects off the ground remains high.

Borrowing money is expensive, insurance premiums remain high and landowners have been slow to lower their asking prices, Conroy said. Meanwhile, developers are finding it harder to sell condominiums, fill apartments and lease office space.

“It’s a tough equation for us developers,” he said.

The slowdown extends beyond downtown. According to Marcus & Millichap’s second-quarter 2026 report, the number of apartments under construction across the Tampa-St. Petersburg market fell to its lowest level since early 2021 during the first quarter.

The Cade’s progress also follows years of planning around one of Mirror Lake’s historic properties.

As previously reported, Backstreets Capital restored the neighboring Cade Allen home at 250 Mirror Lake Drive, a roughly 90-year-old residence that had previously been used as a law office. The house has since been returned to residential use and listed for sale at $3.5 million.

The new condominium building is rising behind it.

Conroy said crews poured the sixth-floor slab last week and are preparing to complete the seventh floor, with the roof expected shortly afterward.

Sales have moved more slowly than construction.

When Backstreets announced the groundbreaking in April, 40% of the building’s 15 residences were under contract. Conroy said the percentage remains roughly the same today, with several prospective buyers waiting until the winter selling season.

The remaining residences are being offered at prices in the $900-per-square-foot range, he said.

Conroy declined to disclose The Cade’s total development cost, saying buyers could use the figure to estimate the company’s profit margins.

Despite the slower market, Backstreets Capital continues looking for places to build. Conroy said the company has a couple of other properties under contract in St. Petersburg, though he did not identify them.

He believes the next challenge will be convincing property owners that land values have changed.

During downtown’s building boom, owners watched developers pay large sums for parcels that could accommodate hundreds of apartments or condominiums. Some are still seeking those prices, even though rising costs and tighter financing have made projects harder to justify, Conroy said.

“If land sellers are holding on to 2021 or 2022 or 2023 visions of what their land was worth, those days are long gone,” he said.

He expects more owners to confront that reality over the next six months.

“The land sellers that get realistic about what their land is really worth are going to be the ones that attract the interest of developers,” Conroy said.