Developer eyes St. Petersburg's tallest building

Feldman Equities, which owns a trio of high-profile St. Petersburg office buildings and is working to develop Tampa's tallest skyscraper, has taken the first steps to acquire Priatek Plaza in downtown St. Petersburg, sources with knowledge of the deal say.

If the deal reaches fruition, it would likely mark the largest Tampa-area acquisition to date for Feldman and joint venture collaborator Tower Realty Partners. The 28-story Priatek Plaza could fetch about $50 million, based on recent existing per square foot sales and development rights.

The 300,000-square-foot tower, at 200 Central Ave., is currently 90% occupied by investment firm Raymond James, law firm Trenam, Bank of Tampa, QOR and digital advertiser Priatek, among others.

Kucera Properties has owned the city's tallest building, completed by FPL in 1990, since 2002.

The company early last year formulated a plan to add 300 rental apartments, an 80-room boutique hotel, ground-floor retail and as many as 800 additional parking spaces to a one-acre lot adjacent to the existing tower. It hopes to complete that addition in 2018, but the company has yet to move forward with that development.

Feldman might also decide to scrap the apartment and lodging plan and develop office space on the site, if the transaction moves ahead. St. Petersburg's office vacancy rate stands at less than 7%, the lowest it's been in roughly two decades.

Feldman declined to comment on any potential acquisition on Wednesday and Kucera could not be reached.

Feldman is certainly familiar with the region's office market. In St. Petersburg, Feldman and Tower Realty own the 12-story City Center building at 100 Second Ave. South; the 17-story Morgan Stanley Tower at 150 Second Ave. N.; and the 17-story First Central Tower, at 360 Central Ave. Collectively, it spent $65.6 million to buy the three assets, property records show.

The pair also own the 22-story Wells Fargo Center in downtown Tampa, at 100 S. Ashley Drive, which they acquired for $44.8 million.

Feldman and Tower Realty are perhaps best known, however, for proposing a 52-story, mixed-use building in downtown Tampa that would be the city's tallest high-rise and the first new structure developed there since 1992.

Riverwalk Tower, a $200 million project that would contain 215,000 square feet of Class A office space, ground-floor restaurants, on-site parking and 203 luxury apartments, is slated for completion in 2018.