Westshore office buildings, including Five Labs, to be redeveloped
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jul 17, 2024

A St. Petersburg developer plans to raze two Westshore office buildings to make way for apartments.

Paradise Ventures has asked the city to rezone 4115 W. Spruce St. and 4107 W. Spruce St., which together are 3.24 acres and home to two multistory office buildings totaling 62,486 square feet. If its rezoning request is approved, Paradise plans to build 371 apartments and 1,260 square feet of ground-floor commercial space on the property.

Paradise paid $5.25 million for 4115 W. Spruce St. in 2020. It paid $6.196 million for 4107 W. Spruce in 2023.

The office building at 4115 W. Spruce St. is home to Five Labs, a conference and educational space for the health care industry. Five Labs CEO and founder Derek Pupello told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that Five Labs has a lease on the property that extends into 2026, and he's looking for office space in the Westshore business district.

"Ideally, we will stay in the Westshore area," Pupello said. "It's critical that we stay near the airport. Most of our programs involve surgeons who fly in from out of town."

The West Spruce location is 16,000 square feet, and Pupello said he's looking to stay around the same size — no less than 15,000 square feet, though he could expand up to 19,000 square feet.

"Tampa is still our busiest location," Pupello said, "even though we’ve added Atlanta, Las Vegas, Boston and San Antonio."

Gardner Brewer Hudson PA is Paradise Ventures' legal representative. Kimley-Horn is the engineer; CBA Architects is the architect. Lincks & Associates Inc. is the transportation engineer, and Dark Moss is the arborist.

The developer recently engaged the same team to rezone the Concorde Career Institute property to make way for up to 331 apartments. That site is on the southwest corner of North Lois Avenue and West Spruce Street, across the street from the planned redevelopment of Five Labs.