Downtown tower brings $149 million, highest sale price in a decade

ST. PETERSBURG — Icon Central, a residential tower in downtown St. Petersburg, has sold for a reported $149 million.

Camden Property Trust, a Real Estate Investment Trust based in Houston, acquired the 15-story, 368-unit complex

A spokeswoman for JLL Capital Markets, which marketed the property, says in an email that the company would not disclose the sale price. But according to the real estate research firm the CoStar Group, Camden’s $149 million purchase price was the highest paid for an apartment building in the city in a decade.

According to CoStar, Camden paid $404,891 per unit, far higher than the average per-unit sale price of $232,799. The researcher calls it the “priciest apartment sale in the city and the third-priciest apartment sale in the Tampa Bay area in a decade.”

CoStar reports that the building is 2.1% vacant, which, along with Icon’s location, could have contributed to the sale price. The average vacancy rates in St. Petersburg is 5.8% and 4.8% in Tampa.

Icon Central was completed in 2019 and sits near both the Central Arts and Edge Districts of downtown St. Petersburg. Apartments range from studio to three bedrooms with rents starting at $1,963 and topping out at $7,744, according to Apartments.com.

Units include private balconies and Italian cabinetry along with building wide amenities that include a rooftop terrace, steam room and Zen lounge, JLL says in a statement announcing the sale.

Miami-based Tricera Capital bought the 15,000-square-foot ground floor retail portion of the building in July for $11.1 million. The sale of the retail portion was separate from the apartments, the spokeswoman says.