Developers bid on another piece of St. Pete's failed Moffitt site
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 18, 2023

St. Petersburg’s Feldman Equities has partnered with a Miami developer to bid on a city-owned property lot near Tropicana Field.

A joint venture of Property Markets Group/PMG Affordable and Feldman Equities has submitted an unsolicited bid on a parcel at 800 First Ave. S that was once part of a proposal for a Moffitt Cancer Center facility. It is directly north of the city-owned property that Tampa-based Third Lake Partners, which purchased the adjacent UPC Insurance headquarters building in November, bid on earlier this month.

PMG and Feldman Equities have offered $8 million for the 2.3-acre site and propose a two-phase development. The developers will dedicate 30% of their residential units to affordable housing. Their offer triggers an open bid process because the land is publicly owned.

The development team includes Place Architecture as the architect, George F. Young as the civil engineer and Hill Ward Henderson as legal counsel. The general contractor for phase one will be DuCon Construction; the general contractor for phase two will be Suffolk Construction.

Feldman said the site’s proximity to a “SunRunner stop, Publix, the Pinellas Trail, and of course the Historic Gas Plant project” made it an ideal location for their vision.

The first phase will build 111 affordable residences for those making 80% of area median income or less. Phase two will include 259 market-rate apartments and a minimum of 110,000 square feet of office space. In total, the project will include approximately 14,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.

Once the team has closed on the land for the second phase, it will transfer the affordable housing portion to the city. It will also build permanent parking spaces for the city.

“We believe that St. Pete is at a serious risk of becoming a bedroom community to Tampa if we don’t make building new office a priority,” said Mack Feldman, vice president of Feldman Equities. “More housing is of course also critically important, but the other side of the housing affordability question is: How do we grow median incomes in our city? New office buildings attract high-wage paying employers to our city.”

Feldman said they have had preliminary discussions with tenants but need to win the bid before they further pursue prelease commitments. He said they are “confident in being able to lease up the 110,000 square feet.”

The group expects the building to accommodate approximately 300 new jobs following construction. If there is sufficient demand, they intend to increase the amount of office space in the project.

“We believe medical office and traditional office uses are compatible with the site,” Feldman said. “St. Pete is losing tenants to new construction buildings in Tampa — we want this building to give those companies looking for modern, well-located and amply amenitized buildings an option to make their home in St. Pete.”

The team will preserve Second Avenue South as the “front door” approach to the Historic Gas Plant redevelopment in the planning stages on the Tropicana Field site. They will also build public parking on the site.