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Hotel, ALF planned on 4 Midtown acres

A 100-room hotel and a160-bed home are planned at 901 Sixth Ave. S.

By PAUL SWIDER, Times Staff Writer
Published January 13, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - To feed a growing medical community and other commercial interests, a developer is planning a new hotel and an assisted living facility on vacant land near Campbell Park.

Town & Country Properties is planning a 160-bed assisted living home and a 100-room extended-stay hotel at 901 Sixth Ave. S. The developer had a plan for medical offices but is changing that to meet market conditions.

"The thought is the hotel would serve the medical community," said Randy Wedding of Wedding and Stephenson, which is designing the plan. "But it's close to downtown, so it could be used by businesses and others too."

The assisted living facility would be a four-story structure on the south end of the property, Wedding said. The hotel would rise to five or six stories to the north. The estimated $20-million project could begin as early as this summer.

The proposal is slated for administrative approval this month unless neighbors object. If residents do complain, the case would be heard at the February meeting of the Development Review Commission. Wedding said that he has met with residents of Campbell Park and that their enthusiasm would suggest they wouldn't object.

"We need something there. It's a vacant lot," said Harvey Brown Sr., the president of the Campbell Park Neighborhood Association. "Nobody's come up with anything in a long time. Maybe this will bring some economic development and jobs to Midtown."

The 4-acre parcel winds around an office building at Fifth Avenue S and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. There had been single-family homes on the land, but it was also the site of Faith Temple Church, a 20,000-square-foot "glory barn" that had hosted evangelists like Billy Graham and Billy Sunday. Faith Temple was torn down in 2000.

Wedding said the development involves a partial vacation of Sixth Avenue S and 10th Street. The project will also add trail improvements along Booker Creek to connect an existing path through Roser Park to Campbell Park, an overpass traversing Interstate 175 and Tropicana Field.

The city approved a site plan in late 2006 for 175,000 square feet of office space in three buildings and a six-story parking garage.

The neighborhood has seen a lot of construction lately; both All Children's Hospital and Bayfront Medical Center are growing.

All Children's is adding 1-million square feet, including a new nine-story hospital, and Bayfront is adding a heart center in a structure being built by Optimal Outcomes.

Paul Swider can be reached at pswider@sptimes.com or 892-2271.

[Last modified January 12, 2008, 21:40:31]