SunTrust building gets new owner

© St. Petersburg Times
published June 8, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- Wallace Welch & Willingham Inc. purchased the five-story SunTrust Bank Building at 300 First Ave. S in downtown St. Petersburg for $5.8-million Friday.

The insurance agency will take over the fifth floor, which was formerly occupied by Digital Chainsaw, a Web-hosting company that closed its doors. The bank and other tenants will remain in the building, which has about 55,000 square feet of space and a 133-car parking garage. Coolidge 1st Avenue Equities of Scarsdale, N.Y., was the seller.

"We wanted to be downtown," president and chief executive Weyman Willingham said. "It's exciting seeing all the growth taking place."

He said the employee-owned company was first established downtown in the 1920s. It now has 55 employees and about $60-million in gross annual sales.

Wallace Welch & Willing-ham's current building at 3810 16th St. N, St. Petersburg, was sold to Dr. Stephen Updegraff for $1.7-million. Updegraff plans to invest another $1.5-million to renovate the 17,000-square-foot building, which was once a grocery store. The project will include offices for his ophthalmic practice and an ambulatory surgery center.

Updegraff, who heavily markets LASIK laser eye surgery, plans to vacate the two buildings his medical practice now occupies at 1600 and 1607 Ninth St. N.

"The market has been extremely strong for purchases this year, although the leasing market has been slow," said Mike Talmadege, a broker with Echelon Real Estate Services who handled the transactions.

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