The Beach Drive epiphany that made Larry Feldman millions
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 26, 2014

It was Downtown St. Petersburg's Beach Drive that sold Larry Feldman on the Tampa Bay region.

It was 2010, and Feldman and his investment partners were looking for office properties in the region. Prices were at a post-crash low, but Feldman says he was leery of Tampa Bay, telling his partners it was a "dead end."

Fortunately for Feldman, his perspective changed.

On one of his first trips, he had a cup of coffee on Beach Drive, looking out over the water. It struck him as "a little slice of the Riviera in Florida."

"There was kind of an epiphany moment where I was sitting there, " he said. "And I actually had this feeling, like oh my God, this is amazing. There's nothing like this in the whole state."

Feldman and his partners have gone on to make millions on Tampa Bay's office market, and they aren't done. They are under way on renovations to the Morgan Stanley Tower in downtown St. Petersburg and recently acquired First Central Tower in downtown St. Pete, with plans to brighten and modernize both buildings.

If 2014 is any indication, those could turn out to be highly profitable ventures for Feldman and his partners.

This year, they sold the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Tampa for $78 million, after paying $44.8 million for it in 2012 and investing about $6 million in upgrades.

They paid $15 million for the bank note on Fountain Square II, a suburban office building in Westshore, and worked out a "friendly" deed-in-lieu with the previous owner in 2011. They sold that building in June for $24.75 million.

"To see the waterfront really intrigued me," Feldman said, "and it's taken me four years to realize the reason Tampa exists and the reason I was wrong to be so obnoxious, is it is all about the water, and the reason these downtowns also are going to boom is the waterfront."

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.