St. John's Episcopal buys entire South Tampa block, including Four Green Fields
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 1, 2015

St. John's Episcopal Parish Day School has purchased a prime block of South Tampa that includes Irish pub Four Green Fields.

The private school paid $3.75 million for the majority of the 200 block of West Platt Street - roughly an acre - according to a Hillsborough County deed filed Thursday. The school said in an email newsletter Thursday that it had acquired the "parking lots next to the school and the Four Green Fields building and land."

With the acquisition, the school "now owns the entire block where the middle division buildings sit, as well as all of the block next to it with the exception of the small building where the florist sits, the building where Zudar's restaurant is housed, and the parking lots adjacent to those two buildings."

The letter was signed by the church rector, the Rev. Charles Connelly, and Robert S. Stephens, the head of school. The real estate will eventually be used to expand the school's middle division campus.

Bank of Tampa provided a mortgage for 100 percent of the purchase price, according to mortgage documents filed Thursday.

It's not clear what will happen to Four Green Fields. Neither pub owner Colin Breen, who sold the school his real estate, nor a school spokesman were immediately available for comment Thursday evening.

"Although we now own the property, Four Green Fields remains an operating business at the present time," the school wrote. "Therefore, restrictions on parking in the FGF parking lot and cutting through the parking lots to get to the middle division campus remain in effect until further notice."

The school said it has not yet launched an official fundraising campaign but that it would soon start working on expansion plans "as well as creating a responsible, intentional strategy for financing that plan."

"Securing this land is not only a positive step toward the eventual expansion and renovation of our middle division campus and the renovation and re-imagining of our lower division facility, the board and school leadership also see it as a strategic imperative that will guarantee the vitality and viability of our school and our school identity for years to come," the school wrote in its newsletter.

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