Tampa developer closes on former Home Depot site in St. Pete's Skyway Marina district
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Feb 15, 2017

A Tampa developer has finalized a deal for a long-dormant tract of land in one of St. Petersburg's most beleaguered neighborhoods.

Philips Development and Realty LLC said Wednesday that it has closed on the former Home Depot site in St. Pete's Skyway Marina district, at U.S. Highway 19 and 30th Avenue South. The developer is planning a mixed-use project with more than 300 apartments and 13,000 square feet of retail space.

The purchase price was $4.2 million, a spokesman for PDR said.

Home Depot paid $6.5 million for the site in 2007, according to Pinellas County property records. The retailer demolished a resort on the property but halted plans to build a store there when the recession hit.

The revitalization of the Skyway Marina is a major focus for the city of St. Petersburg. The city will spend $1 million in improvements that include signage, landscaping, pedestrian lighting and banners and bus shelters. Publix recently opened a store at the south end of the district.

The mixed-use building is slated to break ground in six to nine months, PDR said in a news release. PDR will also develop a 100,000-square-foot, climate-controlled storage facility on the site in partnership with Jernigan Capital of Memphis, Tennessee.

Construction costs are pegged at $70 million.

"It is areas like this that we focus on," Don Philips, managing director of PDR, said in a statement. "The Skyway Marina District is screaming for retail, luxury living and involvement from the St. Petersburg art scene.”

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