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ST. PETERSBURG - A candidate to become downtown's tallest building is emerging as developers finish plans for a mixed-use project that will have two towers, one reaching 42 stories or 435 feet into the air.
This is the newest entrant in downtown redevelopment, where a half-dozen projects have been finished in the past few years, most of them condominium towers, and another half-dozen or so are on the drawing boards.
This development, to be built on a block between Central and First avenues N and First and Second streets, will bring 150-250 hotel rooms and 200-250 condominiums. Tibor Hollo of Miami, one of the developers, said he has an agreement with Westin to manage the hotel.
"It will be a four-star hotel," Hollo said.
The entire complex will cost more than $200-million, said Hollo, who is partnering with Jimmy Aviram, a St. Petersburg developer who owns or has an interest in a number of downtown properties - among them the Bank of America building, currently downtown's tallest structure at 386 feet. Just last week, Aviram and the St. Petersburg Arts Center announced a collaboration that would include arts venues and condominiums on Central Avenue at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street.
Aviram and Hollo met with city officials Tuesday to discuss project details and to submit plans. After 5 p.m. Thursday, impact fees would be charged against the project. Projects built downtown are in a zone that currently does not charge impact fees. While other areas of Pinellas County will extend their no-fee zones until next year, St. Petersburg is ending its downtown no-fee zone.
"We will save between $600,000 to $700,000," Aviram said.
Their development, which has been talked about for several years, would consist of a seven-story base on which the two towers would be built. The base would hold retail and commercial space on the ground floor and part of the second. The next five levels would hold 814 parking spaces.
One tower, 32 stories of commercial space and hotel rooms, would be called Tropicana Center. In the second, taller tower, 200-250 condominiums will range in price from $325,000 to at least $500,000.
Hollo and Aviram paid $4-million for the project site in 2001.
Hollo said the retail shops in the complex would be an extension of BayWalk, downtown's retail and entertainment complex.