Downtown St. Petersburg’s tallest office tower has a new landlord, and a hefty renovation tab to match.
Feldman Equities and its partners have acquired the 28-story office building at 200 Central Avenue, the tallest office tower in downtown St. Pete, and say they plan to invest more than $20 million to modernize the property. The new owners say the overhaul will focus on elevators, HVAC and life-safety systems, along with a refreshed lobby and exterior. The deal is the latest sign that investors are still betting on the Central Avenue corridor as new residential and retail projects continue to reshape the waterfront blocks.
Rising roughly 380 feet and totaling about 308,000 square feet, the tower anchors the city’s business district and houses a mix of national and local tenants, including Raymond James, Trenam Law, ARK Invest and co-working operator Industrious. On the ground floor, Craft Kafe, Taverna Costale and Naked Farmer serve office workers and downtown residents alike. The buyer says the renovation plan will also address common areas and the skybridge that connects the building to the adjacent parking garage. As reported by Tampa Bay Business & Wealth, the purchase was completed by a joint venture led by Feldman Equities alongside the Youngquist Family and Equity Street Capital.
“Our continued investment in downtown St. Petersburg’s office market is a vote of confidence in this city’s future,” Mack Feldman, vice president at Feldman Equities, said in a statement. The firm told Tampa Bay Business & Wealth that the renovations are designed to attract larger, longer-term tenants and to bring building systems up to contemporary standards.
The tower carried the Priatek Plaza name after local ad-tech firm Priatek bought naming rights in 2015, and the Tampa Bay Times reports that Priatek still leases roughly 8,000 square feet on the 23rd floor despite having a small staff. That presence has kept the building tied to St. Pete’s small-tech scene even as large financial and law firms fill much of the upper floors.
Why it matters for downtown
The deal lands in the middle of a years-long shift in downtown St. Pete’s office market, where vacancy has been trending down and rents up as new residential towers and retail bring more workers and residents into the core. St. Pete Catalyst notes that the tower was purchased by Third Lake Capital in 2017 and that occupancy gains and common-area renovations under that ownership helped trim vacancy, upgrades the new owners say they intend to build on. Across Central Avenue, landlords and developers have been repositioning older office buildings to compete with newer, mixed-use projects.
Next steps and timeline
The buyers have not disclosed the sale price and have not provided a firm construction start date, saying only that renovation work will begin after planning and permitting are complete. As reported by the Tampa Bay Times, the terms of the transaction were not released and the buyer declined to share a detailed timetable for the project.
