St. Petersburg, FL — St. Petersburg is experiencing exponential growth in real estate development, trying to keep up with the demand for both office space and affordable housing, while attracting a plethora of out-of-market players to the area. The three partners at Apogee Real Estate Partners, LLC recognize that now is the ideal time to launch their new venture, utilizing their extensive real estate expertise, while keeping the focus on the community.
John Stadler, John Barkett and Gordon Crozier each bring decades of varied real estate experience to the endeavor. Individually, the principals were involved in creating dynamic projects throughout St. Petersburg, including curating businesses to assist in creating the EDGE district, joint venturing ICON Central while preserving the Union Trust Building and building The Hermitage, the first mid-rise, Class A, multi-family project in the western part of the downtown core.
Combined, the trio offers the ability to see the potential in a property that others may overlook, the local knowledge of processes and key players, the expertise in financing unique projects, as well as the realization of their civic responsibilities—bringing forth real estate projects that are in the best interest of the community at large.
“The most successful projects in St. Pete will be the ones that focus on continued growth for the whole community,” said John Stadler, managing partner. He added, “While developments absolutely need to address the affordable housing shortage here, at the same time, this area has become a hotbed for vibrant talent that could attract national and international companies to move their businesses to St. Pete to maximize future high-income job creation—but that can’t happen without development of new Class A office space first.”
Apogee recently illustrated this need in their RFP response to the City of St. Petersburg to purchase the undeveloped land at 910 2nd Avenue South. The firm proposed the optimum blend of usage for the 2 acres to include 216,000 square feet of Class A office space, 360 residential units of which 10 percent will be workforce housing, retail space and over 1,000 parking spaces, of which approximately 500 parking spaces will be available to the public during high demand periods of weekends, nights and holidays.
Link to actual submission and photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tPxGAazzvzG3tkPFJe5oa5LHDP-rQwdE?usp=sharing
If successful with their proposal, Apogee will be responsible for projects bookending the Tropicana Field redevelopment site. The company was involved in the initial planning and entitlement of the new Mill Creek project, Modera St. Petersburg, a 20-story, 383-unit Class A multi-family project just east of I-275 and south of the Pinellas Trail, as well as Trails Crossing, a public/private initiative to transform four blocks under the I-275 overpass and along the Pinellas Trail into a cultural linear park connecting currently bi-furcated communities. Apogee views the Trails Crossing project as an example of how the local development community can work together with the City to unlock the community value of the City’s existing assets.
“We see the site located at 910 2nd Avenue South as one of the last suitable sites for the City to help facilitate the development of a financially feasible Class A office building, which will create new high paying jobs, as well as additional jobs for our existing residents, thus contributing to our continued economic growth and long-term sustainability,” said John Barkett, managing partner. “It also allows us to add assets that are vital to this community in the form of workforce housing along with much-needed parking available to the public,” he added.
Industry experts report office vacancy rates in St. Petersburg are under 4 percent, demonstrating substantial demand in the market. The proposed footprint of 20,000 square feet per floor is an extremely efficient use of space for larger tenants. This, combined with the generous three-per-thousand parking ratio, with the ability to flex park in excess of a four-per-thousand parking ratio, will make it very attractive to new to market companies as well as competitive with space typically found in more suburban areas.
Apogee submitted their proposal in conjunction with Cushman Wakefield (https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/united-states/offices/tampa), the market leader in commercial real estate leasing, who will be responsible for leasing the Class A office space and with the world renowned architectural firm of Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates (https://nicholsarch.com/).
The most current updates on this project and similar projects in which Apogee Real Estate Partners was involved with are available on:
Website: https://www.apogeerep.com/
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Apogee Real Estate Partners, LLC, brings together three of Florida’s leading real estate professionals. With over a century of combined experience in every facet of real estate, they have helped shape skylines through countless developments, while maximizing the return on investment from each project.
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