Developer shares timeline, more details on 35-story tower in downtown St. Pete
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 15, 2015

David Mack pauses, then corrects himself: The 35-story tower he's planning to develop in downtown St. Petersburg won't have "nice views."

"Well, not nice, but amazing views over the bay," he said.

Mack, principal of David A. Mack Properties LLC, has proposed a tower with 306 residential units, 8,834 square feet of commercial space and 505 parking spaces on the former Grand Bohemian Hotel site - the northwest corner of First Avenue North and Second Street, across the street from Jannus Landing.

His equity partners, Connecticut-based Greenfield Partners, paid $8.75 million for the site in late September. Because the group is still in negotiations with potential contractors, he didn't want to disclose an exact construction cost, but said the figure could be between $70 million and $100 million.

The project still has to clear the city's development process and win approval from the Federal Aviation Authority because of its height. A realistic timeline for construction beginning, Mack said, is by the end of 2016.

"If we fast-tracked it, we could be under construction by summer," he said. The group intends to select a general contractor by the first week of January. And while the tower is in the very early stages, there's already interest in the commercial space from restaurateurs Mack and his partners have worked with previously.

They're aiming for a mix of demographics in the building, with units ranging in size from 1,000 square feet to 1,800 square feet. Larger units on higher floors would be intended for empty nesters seeking a downtown lifestyle, Mack said; the smaller units on lower floors would be geared toward millennial renters.

The tower is strictly a rental project, Mack said. The group has no intention of converting the units to condominiums. Mack is no stranger to Pinellas County, having also developed the Sand Pearl Resort and Bell Harbor condominiums. It's the first foray into the St. Pete urban core for both Mack and Greenfield.

"We're both kicking ourselves," Mack said, "that we didn't get there sooner."

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