Sundial's owners unveil a new vision for the downtown St. Pete mainstay
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Feb 2, 2023

The owners of St. Petersburg’s Sundial have unveiled a new vision for the open-air center in downtown St. Petersburg — one that ditches its eponymous sundial sculpture in favor of an open-air bar in the property’s courtyard.

The redevelopment plans come nearly one year after Tampa-based Ally Capital Group, led by Andrew Wright, and St. Pete-based Paradise Ventures bought the Sundial in an off-market transaction from St. Petersburg businessman Bill Edwards.

“Placemaking is important, and the new Sundial is designed to be an extension of the community,” Wright said in a statement. “A place that enhances the city socially, economically and culturally. A space where celebrations are had, where business is done and where friends run into each other.”

The developers described their investment as “multimillion-dollar” and said they will update the 85,537-square-foot Sundial’s retail space and courtyard. The courtyard will be transformed with an outdoor bar, cafe-style seating and programming to draw people to the property.

St. Pete architecture firm Behar and Peteranecz is designing the reimagined Sundial, and engineering work is also underway. Infrastructure work will begin this spring.

House of Current, an Atlanta-based agency, has been hired “to bring new energy to the existing Sundial brand,” the developers said.

“We have a unique opportunity to create a centralized gathering and shopping space that can grow with our city,” Mike Connor, president and CEO of Paradise Ventures, said in a statement. “A space that complements the development landscape of St. Petersburg and that is a long-term investment in the city.”

The plans represent a new chapter for the embattled Sundial, which opened as BayWalk in 2000. It was one of the dozens of open-air, festival-style shopping centers built in urban areas around the U.S. in the early aughts; by the time the Great Recession loomed, they were already retail dinosaurs, struggling to retain tenants and draw foot traffic. The same dynamic unfolded across Tampa Bay and throughout Florida; BayWalk’s Tampa counterpart, originally known as Channelside Bay Plaza, has been redeveloped into Sparkman Wharf. In downtown Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Landing has been demolished, and its vacant waterfront real estate awaits its next act.

In St. Pete, Edwards saw potential in BayWalk, buying it for $5.2 million in 2011. Edwards poured $40 million into redeveloping the center and reopened it as Sundial in 2014. But with a retail lineup more suited to a traditional shopping mall, Sundial failed to shine, despite the million-dollar condos and thriving restaurants surrounding it in downtown St. Pete.

Edwards embarked on a second overhaul of the Sundial in 2019. He struck a deal with the owners of Heights Public Market in Tampa’s Armature Works to open a similar market-style food hall in the Sundial. But those plans never came to fruition and ultimately ended in court: Edwards sued the food hall developer, who ultimately declared bankruptcy for the corporate entities behind the Sundial project.