St. Petersburg couple buys, renovating Grayl's Hotel

BUYER: Birchwood Inn Partners LLLP (principals: Chuck Prather and Dr. Kathy Reilly Prather), Tampa

SELLER: Cornerstone Community Bank

PROPERTY: 340 Beach Drive N.E., St. Petersburg

PRICE: $1.85 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.8 million, April 2011

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Williamson Diamond & Caton PA, Seminole

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Real estate developer Chuck Prather and and Kathy Reilly Prather purchased the 22-unit Grayl's Hotel for $1.85 million.

The price equated to $84,091 per unit.

The hotel and restaurant is located in downtown St. Petersburg across the street from Vinoy Park.

The couple has announced plans to renovate the hotel, its restaurant and event spaces. Construction is scheduled to start in September and be completed in about a year. In addition to renovating the hotel units, the new owners will renovate the kitchen, lobby, dinner room and bar and a create new outdoor cafe seating, a covered side patio, 8,000 square feet of event space and a fifth-floor open-air bar and lounge.

Once the renovations are completed, the Prathers will rename the hotel the Birchwood Inn.

“The hotel's waterfront location amidst the Central Avenue entertainment district is superb,” says Chuck Prather in a press release. “Accessible by car or boat, Beach Drive has a sophisticated, international flavor in a completely relaxed, pedestrian-oriented environment. Our redevelopment plans will reflect that.”

Built in 1924, the three-story, 19,000-square-foot building was the largest apartment house in St. Petersburg at the time. The new owners plan to add the hotel to the National Register of Historic Places.