Region's tallest construction tower gets record-setting amount of concrete

A parade of trucks descended upon downtown St. Petersburg on May 12 with a solid and unified goal: to deliver an unprecedented amount of concrete for construction of The Residence at 400 Central. 

Projected to be the tallest residential building on Florida’s Gulf Coast when complete in early 2025, The Residences at 400 Central plans call for 301 luxury condos, in addition to Class A office space, ground-level restaurants, shops and cafes. Units in the 46-story tower will have panoramic views from Tampa Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, according to a statement.

The convoy of concrete, with some 650 trucks, was expected to last 20-24 hours, and the event, the release states, will “rank as the largest-ever continuous pour of concrete for a non-government project in the city’s history, delivering more than two million pounds of concrete, second only to construction of the expansive new pier on the downtown waterfront.”

The general contractor for the building, Suffolk Construction, oversaw the drilling of more than 90 steel-reinforced pilings — some spanning 8 feet in diameter — nearly 180 feet below the surface. Crews then built a massive, reinforced foundation structure that was the focal point of the concrete pour. That concrete, scheduled to be poured from Friday evening, May 12, into Saturday, May 13, will harden to form the foundation for the tower.

Because concrete has a fixed amount of time before hardening, the concrete pour “is a carefully coordinated, nonstop event,” the release states. First up, four different concrete plants across the region filled hundreds of concrete trucks. The trucks were scheduled  to arrive at the construction site at 9 p.m. on a rolling basis and in waves. From there, the plan was to dispatch the vehicles  to four separate stations and begin filling the foundation form. 

The lead developer, New York-based Red Apple Real Estate, coordinated with St. Petersburg city officials to schedule the process to limit impact on traffic and special events, and Suffolk drafted a detailed logistics plan to ensure safety and efficiency. After the concrete cures, construction crews will begin work on the 46-story vertical superstructure.

“This is an exciting step in the construction of this wonderful project,” Red Apple Real Estate founder and principal John Catsimatidis Sr. says in the statement. “We are grateful for the expert staff at the City of St. Petersburg who helped to coordinate the foundation pour. We are moving quickly to build this condominium and deliver homes to all of the current and future purchasers that are buying residences in this wonderful city.”