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EDC approves revised project

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published July 10, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - It took six months and a major redesign, but a proposed $65-million redevelopment of two blocks on First Avenue S was approved by the Environmental Development Commission Wednesday.

The project proposed by the ARC Group Inc. was debated and then deferred in January after the EDC and residents objected to a lack of retail space accessible to pedestrians.

"This has worked out just like we hoped it would. It is something we'd really like to see happening. I like this project a lot," said Timothy Baker, representing the Downtown Neighborhood Association.

The project encompasses two separate blocks to the north and south of First Avenue S between Seventh and Eighth streets.

An existing six-story office building - originally the Florida National Bank - will remain on the north block. The developers plan to add a six- to nine-story office building that will include retail space facing Central Avenue. The new building site is currently a surface parking lot.

The south block will be developed with two seven-story towers over a six-level parking garage. One of the towers will feature 165,000-square-feet of office space. The other, originally proposed to be an office building, will instead become an 84-unit residential structure with street-level retail space.

An open plaza with seating and landscaping is planned for the top of the parking deck between the two towers. The parking structure will fill the entire block. Street-level retail space will face the east and west sides of the garage. A residential lobby will face Seventh Street S.

The south block historically abutted the Atlantic Coastline Railroad tracks and was developed with a variety of uses including a gas station, paint store, auto repair shop, a laundry and auto upholstering businesses. These businesses were eventually demolished and the site is now vacant except for a former convenience store built in 1975.

The project will be built in phases based on market conditions and tenant interest. In other action, the EDC:

Approved a site plan for a nine-story, 12-unit condominium at 219 Fourth Ave. N.

Approved a site plan modification to allow St. Thomas Church and Canterbury School to use a portion of an existing parking lot as an outdoor play area at 1200 Snell Isle Blvd. NE.

Approved a special exception and site plan for a 2,200-square-foot Krystal restaurant at the southeast corner of 34th Street N and Burlington Avenue. Approved the vacation of Eighth Avenue N and two east-west alleys in the block bounded by Seventh Avenue, 39th Street, Ninth Avenue and Lafayette Street N. The action allows the Salvation Army to consolidate property where it plans to build multiple community residential homes.

Approved the vacation of a 16-foot-wide alley southwest of Ninth Avenue and 19th Street N. The action allows Peoples Gas System to continue using an existing storage building that was built in the 1980s but encroached on the alley.

[Last modified July 9, 2005, 23:34:17]