Developer plans permanent market venue in St. Pete's Edge District
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Feb 24, 2017

Jonathan Daou's vision for St. Petersburg's Edge District is more than just funky storefronts filled with hip local businesses. He's creating a retail ecosystem - and is almost ready to bring to life its next component.

Daou is planning a permanent market venue on the vacant lot between Intermezzo Coffee, at 1111 Central Ave. N, and the traffic roundabout at Central Avenue and 11th Street North. He wants to make the market experience as seamless as possible - removing inconveniences like tents that blow in the wind and power cords strewn about - so that vendors can focus on their food or craft.

"I want to take as many kinks out of that as possible," said Daou, president of Eastman Equities.

That will entail setting up permanent vendor booths and power supplies, with plenty of shade and cover from the elements. He's put down packed, hard shells, and in the coming days will begin erecting sail shades and the vendor booths. There will be around 40 booths, and he's looking for both food and craft vendors to fill the market.

It doesn't have a name yet, though Yard Edge, Central Lot and A Lot are contenders.

Recruiting vendors, he says, shouldn't be a challenge. Another of his ventures - one that didn't pan out - was the conversion of St. Petersburg's old Monticello Motel into a food hall, and he's still in touch with several of the groups who were interested in that project.

It will begin with Friday night markets and Sunday afternoon flea markets; the first could be held as soon as March 17.

"It becomes a cultural space," he said.

If the market comes to fruition as Daou envisions, it will be more than a fun gathering spot for locals and tourists. The market will serve as an incubator for retailers who want to eventually open storefronts in the district, which has emerged as one of the Bay region's most up-and-coming neighborhoods.

"It self propagates," he said. "Initially, this is not about earning rent. It's about creating the farm system."

Daou and Eastman Equities control the majority of the storefronts in the Edge District, which begins immediately west of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. The group paid $200,000 for the corner parcel closest to the roundabout in 2015; he has a long-term ground lease on the remaining three parcels between Intermezzo and his lot that represents an additional $600,000 investment.

Prepping the land for the market and setting up the booths represents another $100,000. It's close to a million-dollar project that Daou sees more as marketing for the district instead of a profitable real estate play.

"I always tell people that what made me move down here was the beach and the Saturday Morning Market," said Daou, who moved to St. Petersburg from New York City. "In 2010 it was in full gear, and I knew then that this was a town that had the potential."

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