South Florida developer buys closely watched site in downtown St. Pete
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 30, 2021

A long-watched property in downtown St. Petersburg is now under new ownership following a $7.5 million deal.

Kolter Group, based in Palm Beach Gardens, purchased the Fit2Run site at 256 2nd St. N. for $5.1 million and the adjacent parking lot at 232 2nd St. N. for $2.4 million.

A Kolter executive declined comment on the transaction. Kolter has become of the Tampa Bay region's most prominent condo developers since it entered the market in 2014 with ONE St. Petersburg. Its current projects include Hyde Park House in South Tampa and Saltaire in downtown St. Petersburg.

The seller, an investment group led by developer Steve Gianfilippo, had once targeted the property for a 25-story tower that would offer 100 residential units above 7,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.

Plans for the tower were stalled after Gianfilippo's group sued Heritage Hotel Associates and Robinson Sports, the respective companies that owned and leased a parcel of land at the proposed site.

The suit, which was filed in 2018, said in 2012 Heritage and Robinson signed a lease agreement that would allow Robinson 90 days notice to buy the property for $720,000 before the end of the fifth full lease year. The deadline expired July 2018, and in April 2018 Robinson contracted to sell the site to Ping Pong Partners for $1.8 million. A month later, Robinson told Heritage it wanted to buy the property for the $720,000 via its right in the lease agreement.

Heritage refused and so Robinson then refused to assign the option to Ping Pong Partners, which it had agreed to do if it was unable to convey the title to the land in question. Over the last several years Fit2Run has remained at the location in the yellow storefront near the Hotel Indigo.