Sprouts Farmers Market to anchor upcoming office park redevelopment in St. Petersburg
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jul 11, 2023

Sprouts Farmers Market will be anchoring the upcoming Skyway Village mixed-use project in St. Petersburg’s Skyway Marina District.

Coral Gables-based Altis Cardinal will redevelop the 34-acre Ceridian office park at 3201 24th St. S into a large mixed-use development that will include 2,084 apartments, 119,160 square feet of self-storage space and 92,000 square feet of commercial space — nearly double the 49,000 square feet that was originally planned.

Sprouts Farmers Market's deal with the developer was announced at a community meeting on July 10. The grocer will have 23,000 square feet at this location.

“We anticipate breaking ground mid-2024 on both the Sprouts and the retail outparcel on that phase as well as one of the multifamily [buildings] with ground-floor retail,” Frank Guerra, principal of Altis Cardinal, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal. “We hope to finish the retail, including Sprouts, by mid-2025 and finish the apartment building with the ground-floor retail by the second quarter of 2026.”

A representative from Sprouts could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday. A Sprouts will soon be anchoring a retail plaza in Kenneth City, a suburb of St. Petersburg. That store is expected to open Aug. 18, according to Sprouts' website.

Sprouts, Guerra said, is a “great fit” for the area as it will “upgrade” the grocery offerings in the district. He said there is synergy between the demographic Sprouts targets and the demographic Altis Cardinal is targeting with this development. Sprouts shoppers, according to Guerra, are those who prefer organic and healthy lifestyle choices and Skyway Village will be a haven for those wanting to live in a walkable community.

The new plan — with a total of 92,000 square feet of commercial space — makes this the “largest non-big box retail offering in the history of the Skyway Marina District,” Guerra said.

He said the current plan is the result of “a lot of community interaction and input” over the past several months. Guerra and his team listened to the input and sought out the “most requested and most desired offerings” for the community. The feedback Monday evening indicates they’ve hit the mark.

“People are really excited first of all about the grocer, Sprouts, but also the restaurant offerings,” Guerra said. “Restaurants and entertainment destinations were high on everyone’s list [in the Skyway Marina District] because there hasn’t been a lot brought online.”

Guerra said he also wants to bring in boutiques, coffee shops and other unique retail to make Skyway Village an entirely self-sufficient neighborhood. He’s setting aside 32,000 square feet for restaurants. Residents will be within walking distance of practically any need. The retail will be found along the central spine of the development.

Guerra also announced they will bring an 8,000-square-foot food truck park to an outdoor area between the grocer and the former Ceridian office tower, which will be transformed into an amenity tower for residents. The food truck park will have a dedicated area for games like cornhole and pingpong.

Skyway Village will offer a mix of studios, one, two and three bedrooms, with most apartments being one- and two-bedroom units. The apartments in the development will be in six buildings, each five stories, with parking garages. There will be 3,572 parking spaces throughout the project. Plans show there will be two streets and two avenues added to the site, as well as on-street parking. Recreational trails will be added to the northeast and west side of the property.

This will be Altis’ second large project in St. Pete. It is also behind Elements on Third — a 10-acre, 431-unit campus in St. Petersburg’s Union Central District — which it sold in 2021 for $125 million. Altis Cardinal purchased the office park in December 2021 for $40 million in an all-cash deal.

The development team for Skyway Village also includes WDG Architecture for design and Stantec as the civil engineer.