Historic St. Petersburg hotel property sells for $29 million

A 128-room hotel in St. Petersburg with roots going back almost 100 years has sold.

The Courtyard by Marriott St. Petersburg Downtown went to the Atlanta real estate investment firm The RADCO Cos., which paid $29.1 million.

The property, at 300 Fourth St. N., is in the city’s historic district and was previously owned by The Blackstone Group. Property records show the investment firm paid $17.75 million in 2016.

The building was once the historic Pennsylvania Hotel which was built in 1926 during the Florida land boom. According to Clio, a website on historical and cultural landmarks, it was the seventh major hotel built in downtown St. Petersburg and No. 10 in Pinellas County.

“The hotel was built for Harry C. Case, a man who came to St. Petersburg from Philadelphia and managed the city’s new streetcar line,” the site says. “The hotel struggled during the Great Depression and Case was forced to sell the building to former teacher-turned-lumber baron and politician Ninian Ulysses Bond in 1937.”

CBRE Hotels, which represented Blackstone, says in a statement announcing the sale that the property was converted to the Courtyard flag in 2006. It then underwent a renovation nine years later in 2015.

Among the amenities at the hotel are a restaurant and bar as well more standard features including a fitness and business centers, indoor pool and meeting space.

RADCO was founded in 1994 and specializes in multifamily and hotels, according to its website. It has bought and invested in more than 300,000 units in 15 markets, mostly in the Southeast and Central U.S., and completed more than $3.2 billion in deals in the past 10 years.

Its holdings, according to its website, include Ashford Bayside, an apartment complex in Pinellas County. In early 2021, it sold the 536-unit Sunstone Palms apartment complex in Tampa for $59 million.