Downtown St. Petersburg condo sells for $6.849 million, second-highest sale for a Tampa Bay condo
The penthouse sold Friday is just below the unit in Ovation that sold for a record amount three years ago.

By Susan Taylor Martin
Tampa Bay Times
Published: May 31, 2019

ST. PETERSBURG - A penthouse in the Ovation condo tower in downtown St. Petersburg sold Friday for $6.849 million, making it the second-most expensive condo ever sold in the Tampa Bay area.

The price was $51,000 less than the record sale of $6.9 million, paid in May 2016 for the penthouse directly above it in Ovation at 180 Beach Drive NE.

Liz Heinkel, the listing agent, said she could not disclose the buyer's name, and the deed had not been recorded as of Friday afternoon.

The two Ovation penthouses are among the very few downtown that take up an entire floor.

"They're very unique properties and they don't come on the market all that often,'' Heinkel said. "There are very few people that can afford this price point, so they grab them pretty quickly.''

The condo sold Friday went under contract just a month after it was listed March 5, a fast time for such an expensive unit. The original asking price was $7.5 million, later reduced to $6.95 million.

In the past six months, 151 condos in the downtown area have sold for $1 million or more. All but 22 of the sales were for condos in the recently completed ONE St. Petersburg, which at 41 stories is the tallest residential building on Florida's west coast.

What's up with the sizes and prices of condos in ONE St. Petersburg?

Currently, 17 downtown condos are on the market for at least $1 million. Seven of those are in ONE St. Petersburg as original buyers try to flip them. One seller who bought a unit for $684,900 is asking $1.4 million, a 104 percent markup.

Heinkel described the downtown market as "strong and consistent.''

"I don't like to use the term 'hot,' '' she added, "because it depends on the unit. If it takes a lot of work, that takes longer to sell because we're in an era where buyers want move-in ready. If a unit has been redone or tastefully done, they do sell fairly quickly. But it does slow down in summer because not as many buyers are here.”

Contact Susan Taylor Martin at smartin@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8642. Follow @susanskate.