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SHARON L. BONDDevelopers want to create a set of tall towers for hotels, condos, parking and shops.
ST. PETERSBURG - Developers of the Tropicana block are proposing a $200-million project that would create downtown's tallest building and bring in a Westin hotel.
The project between Central and First avenues N and First and Second streets would include two towers, one of them 42 stories high reaching 435 feet into the air. The development would feature 200 to 250 condominiums, retail and commercial space, parking and a hotel with 150 to 250 rooms.
It is the latest effort at downtown redevelopment, where half a dozen projects have been finished in the past few years, most of them condominium towers, and a half dozen or so are on the drawing boards.
Developers Jimmy Aviram and Tibor Hollo, who paid $4-million for the Tropicana site in 2001, met with city officials Tuesday to discuss the details of their project. It still must be reviewed and approved by city officials and the Federal Aviation Administration because the Albert Whitted Airport is nearby.
Aviram, a St. Petersburg developer, has a financial interest in what is currently downtown's tallest structure at 386 feet, the Bank of America building.
Hollo, a developer from Miami, said he has an agreement with Westin to manage the hotel that would be located in the smaller, 32-story tower along with some commercial space.
"It will be a four-star hotel," Hollo said.
Condominiums ranging in price from $325,000 to at least $500,000 would be built in the tallest tower.
The two towers would sit on a seven-story base that would hold retail and commercial space on the ground floor and part of the second and then five levels with 814 parking spaces.
Hollo said the retail shops in the complex would be an extension of BayWalk, downtown's retail and entertainment complex that sits nearby. However, he said retailers in the new complex probably would be "higher standard stores." He would not name any with whom he is negotiating.
Aviram said he had been meeting with the city for 11/2 months about the design for the complex. Originally it was planned as Mediterranean Revival style, of which there are a number of buildings in St. Petersburg.
But "the city wants it more contemporary," Aviram said.
The developers are trying to submit their plans by 5 p.m. Thursday, after which impact fees will be charged against the project. Projects built downtown do not have to pay fees for the traffic they create. The ordinance "no-fee" zone expires this week.
"We will save between $600,000 to $700,000," said Aviram, who last week announced a joint project with the St. Petersburg Arts Center that would include arts venues and condominiums on Central Avenue at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street.
At least five or six more residential or mixed-use projects are planned for downtown and areas to the near west.
Among them is developer Grady Pridgen's Bayway Lofts. Last year, Pridgen announced a 510-foot condominium tower, but scaled back the plans to 371 feet after the initial height drew protests. The $100-million project has not started yet.
Parkshore Plaza, now under construction, also is a $100-million project with street-level retail space and 120 condominiums and lofts, the most expensive of which are in a 29-story tower.
And Progress Energy Corp. is planning a new office tower and luxury hotel on the block where Florida International Museum now sits.