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Letter to the editor

Hospital wins okay for office building

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published May 8, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Plans for an $18-million medical office building and parking garage on the southeast end of the St. Petersburg General Hospital campus were approved by the EDC Wednesday.

The medical office building will include a diagnostic outpatient facility including a cancer treatment center and diagnostic imaging center. Most of the office space in the remainder of the building has already been reserved by future tenants.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2006 and take about two years, according to developer R. Patrick Marston of Optimal Outcomes LLC.

The four-story, 48,000-square-foot medical building is to be located at 6500 38th Ave. N, west of 64th Street and north of the Miles Creek drainage canal.

A six-level, 630-space parking structure will serve both the office building and the hospital, and will be accessible from within the campus. The parking garage will be located at a canal across from single-family homes.

The new structures will "address a shortage of medical space in the surrounding area" and improve the level and scope of healthcare services to the community, according to Richard Satcher, chief executive officer of the hospital.

The two new buildings were designed to integrate into the existing St. Petersburg General Hospital campus. The buildings will include design elements to blend with the architecture of existing buildings. Substantial landscaping will be added to the hospital campus.

The medical building will face west toward a central parking lot between the new building and the existing hospital. A north-south cruise lane will connect to other parking lots and buildings. Sidewalks will connect the new building to an existing four-story medical office building on 38th Avenue N, the parking garage and the hospital.

The EDC approved a site plan modification and setback variances for the hospital project.

In other action, the EDC:

Approved an air rights vacation over an alley northeast of Central Avenue and 20th Street to allow construction of a proposed parking structure associated with a previously approved mixed-use retail and residential development project.

Approved an airport height variance for W-Plaza, a proposed 14-story, 56-unit residential building at 226-236 Fifth Ave. N that was previously approved by the EDC. An error in the original height measurement of the building led to the variance request.

Approved conversion of an existing single family home at 109 43rd Ave. N to office use, despite protest from a nearby resident. The EDC noted that office conversion is a permitted use in the property's zoning district.

Deferred action until July 6 on street and alley vacations, special exception and proposed site plan for multiple community residential homes on the Salvation Army campus. The deferral was requested by the applicants.

[Last modified May 8, 2005, 00:45:19]