New York investor buys prime downtown St. Pete lot
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 19, 2022

A New York-based private real estate investment firm has expanded its portfolio to St. Petersburg after buying a vacant commercial lot downtown for $10.75 million.

According to a deed filed in Pinellas County, an LLC linked Abacus Capital Group, which was founded in 2004 with a “singular focus on multifamily investments in the United States,” closed on the property at the corner of Arlington Avenue N and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street N on April 15.

The site, which is a block away from Mirror Lake, is currently used as a parking lot. Abacus could not be immediately reached for comment.

Mirror Lake has seen a wave of interest recently from developers. The developer of Reflection Condominiums — planned for 777 Third Ave. N. — purchased property by the lake for this site on April 1 for $4.95 million. The tower will feature 88 condos and 2,763 square feet of retail space.

In January, Las Vegas-based BitNile Holdings Inc., which mines bitcoin, purchased 0.94 acres' worth of multifamily properties at the southeast corner of Third Avenue N and Fifth Street N for $15.5 million. BitNile Holdings intends to build a 22-story multifamily tower on the site.

Abacus has acquired 31,000 units and invested $4.8 billion into multifamily properties on behalf of its investors since 2004, according to the company’s website. It has two other properties in the area. In Tampa, it bought the Avion at Carrollwood in November 2021 for $60 million, and in 2020 it bought the Sage Palmer Ranch in Sarasota for $60.4 million.