Tampa developer could control St. Pete lot regardless of open bid process
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 5, 2023

The Tampa developer bidding on a city-owned lot near Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg may control that property for the long term regardless of who else bids to buy the site.

The site is currently a parking lot and was once part of a proposal for a Moffitt Cancer Center facility. A long-term lease for the parking lot, located at the corner of the 800 block of Second Avenue South, doesn’t expire until Sept. 10, 2086, and is controlled by Tampa-based Third Lake Partners, who purchased the adjacent UPC Insurance headquarters building in November. As part of that purchase, Third Lake assumed the long-term lease on the Second Avenue South lot.

According to the bid submitted to the city, Third Lake plans to terminate its lease if given the opportunity to buy the site. The bid also says the group will keep Second Avenue South open between Eighth Street South and Ninth Street South, which is given special provisions in the lease.

City Development Administrator James Corbett confirmed the existing parking agreement is in full effect unless Third Lake agreed to exit the agreement prior to its expiration.

Third Lake is offering the city $6 million for the site. The offer triggered an open bid process, and the city is currently accepting alternative proposals. But the fact remains that the lease for the site exists for another 63 years.

While the bid doesn’t detail what Third Lake wants to build on the site, it does state the group will “begin construction of the development on the property within five years,” according to the letter of intent.

Ken Jones, CEO of Third Lake, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that Third Lake remains “very bullish and very excited about the continued prospects for development in downtown St. Petersburg.”

“We feel as though this property is very strategically located and believe that it will dovetail nicely and be synergistic with whatever happens on the Tropicana Field site whether that’s a year from now or five years from now,” Jones said.

The original lease was signed May 21, 1987, and officially began in October of that year. The agreement was with Peninsula Motor Club, and in 2014, UPC Insurance took over the lease. When Third Lake purchased the UPC Insurance headquarters, the lease passed to them. UPC Insurance had been part of the Moffitt team for the proposed cancer center project.

In December 2022 — a month after purchasing the headquarters — Third Lake Partners acquired several other nearby United Insurance Holdings properties. Third Lake now owns the headquarters and four additional parcels near Tropicana Field, including a nearby office building and vacant lots used for surface parking.

The properties are all within a few blocks of Tropicana Field. The city is currently in negotiations with the Tampa Bay Rays and Hines development team to redevelop the 86-acre site.