Retail revival the goal for site Progress vacated
Owners see the building's elegance as a lure.
By By James Thorner
Published November 16, 2007
ST. PETERSBURG - With its Mediterranean, copper-domed towers and limestone-arched entryway, the complex at 100 Central Ave. was conceived in the late 1980s as a grand shopping destination.
But what Maas Brothers and Burdines failed to achieve two decades ago, maybe Fresh Market or Crate and Barrel could fulfill today.
Or so the building's Michigan owners hope.
Rebranded as 100 Bay Central, the edifice dominating one full block of downtown St. Petersburg crawled with real estate brokers Thursday afternoon.
Supplied with wine, cheese and iced shrimp, they got their first peek in about a decade at the complex's sleek glass lobby and high-ceilinged floor space. Most of it was off limits until Progress Energy Florida vacated the building this year for its new 16-story headquarters a couple of blocks away.
The owners hope to put a couple of stores on a ground floor totaling 63,000 square feet. One or two corporate tenants could lease the second floor's 72,000 square feet of offices. But they're flexible: They want to fill the place by June 1.
"After the first of the year, we're going to hit the ground hard," said Claire Calzon, the Colliers Arnold agent chasing retailers for owner Lutz Real Estate Investments.
"We're looking forward to getting some life back into this building."
Lutz paid $15-million last year for the building, once known as the South Core project. It was part of a multiblock retail district pitched by Bay Plaza Development Group in 1987. The north end of the district became the shops, restaurants and movie theater of BayWalk.
Bay Central is counting on downtown condo construction - the giant Signature Place condo tower is rising next door - to help supply both retail customers and cubicle dwellers.
In a swipe at Tampa's high level of investor-owned condos, Colliers Arnold agent Ben McLeish said St. Peterburg's condos are actually lived in.
Bay Central owner Adam Lutz concurred in plugging St. Pete's prospects over its sister city across the bay.
"It's really a better 24-hour city than Tampa," Lutz said.
James Thorner can be reached at thorner@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3313. Read his (Un)Real Estate blog at blogs.tampabay.com/realestate.