Developers of St. Pete's Orange Station scrap condos, bring in office and hotel
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 16, 2023

The redevelopment plans for St. Petersburg’s former police headquarters have been overhauled to scrap condos, double its office space and bring in an Autograph Collection boutique hotel.

Edge Central Development Partners, the developer of Orange Station, will need city council approval to add a hotel and expand the office building. The team is comprised of DDA Development, J Square Developers and Backstreets Capital along with Place Architecture.

With the revised plans, a new partner is joining the team: Tampa-based Ellison Development will lead the Autograph Collection Hotels property development and have a joint venture partnership in the rest of the property.

“We’re excited to work with a like-minded brand such as Autograph Collection hotels, who are also known for the same uniqueness that sets the Edge District apart,” Casey Ellison, CEO of Ellison Cos., said. “We’ve worked with many members of the Edge Central Development Partners team for years, and we’re excited to partner with them again.”

Orange Station will still include The Wye, a 42-unit apartment building designated for workforce housing. The 61 condos, The Residences at Orange Station, are gone. Office space has grown from 50,000 square feet to 125,000 square feet, and a parking garage and 14,000 square feet of retail space remain in the plans.

Downtown St. Petersburg, better known for arts, culture and luxury condos than commerce, has a relatively small office market, with a total inventory of more than 1.9 million square feet. (By comparison, the Westshore business district in Tampa is more than 13.3 million square feet of office space; Tampa’s central business district is just under 7 million square feet.) The direct office vacancy rate in St. Petersburg’s central business district was just under 8% at the end of the first quarter, according to CBRE Group Inc. The total vacancy rate was just over 11%.

Business and civic leaders have championed the need for more office space in downtown St. Pete — especially contiguous blocks of modern space — for years. But nationally, office space faces significant headwinds as vacancy rates rise in the face of remote and hybrid work. Financing a speculative office tower, even in a market like St. Pete, will likely face challenges.

“One of the benefits of a 100% local development team working in partnership with the city on a complex mixed-use project like Orange Station is the ability to understand and respond to the needs of the neighborhood and shifts in market conditions,” Will Conroy of Edge Central Development Partners said in a statement. “We are grateful for all of the hard work our partners have put into making this project come to life, and we look forward to moving ahead.”

The hotel will have an “urban lifestyle” aesthetic and will be designed to merge with the Orange Station plaza and become the “living room of the Edge district.” The hotel will have a bar and restaurant, meeting space and conference rooms, multiple event spaces, a fitness center, a multilevel theater and a rooftop pool.

The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club is currently the only other hotel in St Petersburg that is part of the Autograph Collection.

“A premium, lifestyle hotel concept at the level of the Autograph Collection Hotels is the perfect complement to our project, which features the first new Class A office space in the area in 30 plus years, plus ground-level retail space, workforce housing and public parking,” Bowen Arnold of Edge Central Development Partners said in a statement.