Bankruptcy filing appears to stop plans for Armature Works-style food hall at Sundial
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 21, 2021

Two corporate entities linked to plans to put an Armature Works-style food hall inside downtown St. Petersburg's Sundial have filed for bankruptcy — a legal move that one expert says halts both the litigation and plans for the food hall.

The team behind Tampa's Armature Works and restaurant company BE-1 Concepts announced plans to redevelop a large portion of the Sundial into a food hall in late 2019. In October 2020, St. Pete developer Bill Edwards, who owns Sundial, filed a lawsuit against St. Pete Market Hall LLC, an entity controlled by Armature Works president Frank Scalfaro, and BE-1 Concepts, a restaurant company controlled by Tampa developer Chas Bruck.

That lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, alleged that the developers had defaulted on their lease by abandoning the project in an attempt to "strong-arm" Edwards into selling Sundial at a deep discount.

In February, Edwards' Loan Ranger Acquisitions LLC filed a breach of lease lawsuit against the food hall developers in Pinellas County Circuit Court.

BE-1 Concepts and St. Pete Market Hall LLC filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in U.S. bankruptcy court's Florida middle district on Oct. 13. Attorney Harley Riedel, who represents both entities, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Attorney Michael Markham, who represents Edwards' Loan Ranger Acquisitions LLC, also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Edwards was scheduled to be deposed in the February lease case on Oct. 15, but the deposition was canceled in the wake of the bankruptcy filings. The lease case was scheduled for mediation on Sept. 22; a Sept. 23 court filing says an agreement wasn't reached.

"It appears based on the listed asset values in the petitions, the tenant and guarantor have stated they have no meaningful assets and decided that the potential profit under the existing lease terms are no longer worth the investment in the lease and the related litigation," Scott Underwood, a Tampa bankruptcy attorney who reviewed the court filings, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

"As there does not appear to be any additional, or personal, guarantor, the companies have effectively stopped the litigation from Lone Ranger Acquisitions and signaled that they do not intend to lease and operate an Armature Works-like food hall at the Sundial."

Edwards bought Sundial in 2011 — then known as Baywalk — and poured tens of millions of dollars into the property's redevelopment. It reopened as Sundial in 2014 with a movie theater, clothing stores and Locale Market, which included a fish market, butcher shop and several other vendors.

Even as downtown St. Pete grew around it, Sundial wasn't as popular as some other destinations — and Edwards told the Business Journal he saw the food hall as a way to elevate Sundial.

“The city took off like wildfire and quite frankly, we’re catching up,” Edwards said in 2019. “All of a sudden, five years later, we need to revamp. We sparked the growth and everything took off faster than I ever expected, and now I’m behind when I used to be ahead.”