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Beneath layers of paint lies art deco diamond in the rough

Once a car dealership and now an antiques mall, a Fourth Street structure will become a restaurant or retail space. But first, a facelift.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published July 23, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - A redevelopment along Fourth Street N will seek to restore some of that street's old shopping ambience, according to the new property owner.

"Some of these old commercial buildings have a lot of character," said Jay Miller of J Square Developers, which bought the building at 1535 Fourth St. N to refurbish its original 1939 art deco exterior and rent it as a restaurant or retail space. "They weren't built for retail but it will work."

The structure was first built as a Nash automobile dealership by Andrew W. Brown, who sold Nashes in the city beginning in the 1920s, said Charles Ballah Jr., Brown's grandson, who sold Miller the property for an undisclosed sum. Brown Nash Brown Motor Co. operated until 1974, going through Rambler and American Motors lives before closing altogether with the failing health of Ballah's father, who ran the dealership from 1968. New Nash cars sold for the princely sum of $945 when the dealership started.

"I've got a lot of memories of that old building," said Ballah, 59, a fourth-generation resident who now lives in Alabama. "After school, I used to go there and get paid 25 cents a day to sweep floors. Grandad was very generous to me."

Miller said the building, now the Corner Antique Mall, has art deco details covered by paint and years of wear. He intends to bring back details like black glass tiles framing picture windows once used to showcase new cars.

"The front of the building has great art deco detailing but it's not noticeable now," Miller said. "The whole front of the building is glass but it's painted over now."

Miller has his own recollections of growing up amid the area's art deco past from his childhood on St. Pete Beach romping around the Rellim Hotel, built by his grandfather. That building no longer remains. Miller said he got a taste for what restored art deco can do for a neighborhood having spent 13 years in Miami's South Beach district.

"I think it's a lot more interesting when you take old buildings and put new uses in them," said Miller, who lives in the Old Northeast.

The 9,900-square-foot building's interior will be updated to modern standards, Miller said. Once redone, the building will be leased either to one tenant or perhaps to as many as four.

"Fourth Street has become a very desirable location for retail or restaurants," Miller said. "There's so much renovation in the neighborhood that it makes sense that retailers would follow the demographics."

Part of the renovation Miller plans to leverage is the city's own plan to rework the street from Fifth Avenue N to 29th Avenue N, the so-called Garden District. Already, the city has added acorn-style streetlamps reminiscent of the Nash dealership era, and is designing a $2-million effort to refurbish sidewalks and curbs, add more lighting and street furniture, and even install landscaped medians.

Ballah spent his childhood hanging out in the Brown Nash building and the surrounding neighborhood. He said there were no medians on Fourth Street because there was very little traffic.

"When you'd see a car, you'd look up to see who it was because you probably knew them," he said.

The building was the last piece of property Ballah's family owned in Pinellas County, he said. He had earlier sold off what was once a ranch at 102nd Avenue N and Starkey Road.

Miller has other development plans in the area. He said he is working on a five-unit, three-story luxury townhome development on 11th Avenue N at Beach Drive. He is also developing in-fill single-family housing in the Port Tampa area across Tampa Bay.

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com.

[Last modified July 22, 2006, 20:37:23]