A vacant storefront that once housed Tampa Bay's first cat café is now the site of a 13-story, 120-unit tower in St. Petersburg's Grand Central District, and its developer just revised the plans again — this time to add 48 affordable housing units and chase a multimillion-dollar federal grant. Tampa-based BendinRoad Development is updating its previously approved Residences at 1663 project at 1663 1st Ave. S. to qualify for financial incentives tied to affordable housing, according to Florida YIMBY.
The revision comes as BendinRoad seeks $4.8 million in federal Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funding through the City of St. Petersburg, with city staff recommending approval ahead of a scheduled October 1 City Council vote, according to St. Pete Rising. Those disaster-recovery dollars stem from federal funds allocated to St. Petersburg following Hurricanes Idalia in 2023 and Helene in 2024, per the same outlet. BendinRoad founder Craig Bazarsky told the outlet the company deliberately delayed its original construction timeline to align with the city's CDBG-DR grant application window, pushing groundbreaking to the first quarter of 2027.
From Cat Café to 13-Story Tower
The 0.23-acre site currently holds a vacant commercial building that once housed Sunshine Kitty Catfe, which opened in the Grand Central District in 2019 and closed in 2023, along with the law office of Dolman Law Group, the station's report notes. Nicholas & Associates, the project's general contractor, intends to start construction in the first quarter of 2027, per Florida YIMBY's reporting. Bold Line Design is serving as architect, while Kimley-Horn is handling both civil engineering and landscape architecture duties.
The project has changed shape considerably since it was first pitched. As reported by St. Pete Catalyst, BendinRoad originally floated the development in June 2023 as a smaller, $25 million, eight-story car-free complex with 97 micro-apartments before redesigning it into the current 13-story tower. The building had already secured site plan approval before the developer adjusted its schedule to pursue affordable housing subsidies.
Splitting Apartments and Short-Term Rentals
Of the tower's 120 residences, 48 will now be designated as affordable housing available to households earning at or below 80 percent of area median income — a threshold that, in Pinellas County, sits against a median family income of $104,700. The remaining units split between 60 standard apartments and 60 short-term rentals, a hybrid model the St. Petersburg Development Review Commission conditioned on requiring all standard residential apartments to carry a minimum one-year lease term, according to St. Pete Catalyst's earlier coverage. Board members had raised concerns about unauthorized short-term vacation rentals bleeding into the residential side of the building.
Floorplans will range from studios to two-bedroom units, with every apartment coming in under 750 square feet. Aside from the addition of affordable housing, the project's architectural elements remain unchanged, per Florida YIMBY. A shared amenity deck on the 13th floor will include a swimming pool, a fitness center, and a co-working space.
State Tax Breaks and a Tampa Blueprint
Florida's updated Live Local Act grants a 100% local property tax exemption for qualifying residential units set aside for households earning at or below 80% of area median income, according to real estate legal analysis published by Bilzin Sumberg. That exemption, paired with the pending CDBG-DR grant, gives BendinRoad two overlapping funding streams tied directly to the 48 affordable units.
The strategy mirrors one BendinRoad has already run in downtown Tampa. The developer partnered with Rhode Island-based Landings Real Estate Group to open leasing in December 2025 for The Residences at 801 East Whiting Street, an eight-story, 104-unit Tampa project featuring motorized ceiling-retractable Ori Cloud Bed systems, as reported by Florida YIMBY. In May, the City of Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency approved $4 million in CRA funding for that same project to convert 22 of its units into workforce housing for households earning between 80% and 140% of area median income, aimed at retaining housing access for local service workers, teachers, and first responders.
Landings Real Estate Group's own project filings confirm the Rhode Island firm partnered with BendinRoad to acquire the St. Petersburg parcel and co-develop the 120-unit building, the two companies having collaborated on several urban infill rental projects across Tampa Bay. The 1663 1st Avenue South site also sits less than a third of a mile from the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority's SunRunner Bus Rapid Transit station at 13th Street, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal — proximity that supports the higher density and reduced parking requirements built into the project's design.
