Saltaire

This month’s edition of Aerial St. Pete shows the progress on several real estate developments throughout St. Petersburg, FL. Aerial St. Pete is a column by St. Pete Rising which features exclusive aerial photography of projects under construction in St. Pete. To accomplish this, we have teamed up with AB3 Visuals. 

In this article we are taking a look at Art House, Ascent St. Petersburg, Evo, Modera St. Petersburg, The Residences at 400 Central, and Saltaire.

Each of these developments is a residential tower project that is helping reshape the downtown St. Petersburg skyline. They are all above 20 stories tall and are in various stages of construction – some of the towers are nearing completion while others are just beginning to rise.

St. Pete Rising looks froward to continuing to be your source for St. Pete real estate development news and we will continue to track these projects as they near completion.

Saltaire, a 35-story condominium building currently under construction in downtown St. Pete, has topped out. The construction milestone comes just two months after the developer announced the development was sold out.

The project, which is located at 300 1st Street South, is being developed by Delray Beach-based Kolter Group and will feature 192 luxury condominiums along with 9,000 square feet of ground floor retail.

Saltaire, a 35-story condominium tower under construction at 300 1st Street South, has sold out nearly a year before its expected completion in June 2023.

The modern high-rise is being developed by Delray Beach-based The Kolter Group. The company’s other St. Pete projects include ONE St. Petersburg, a 42-story condo tower located two blocks north of Saltaire, and Art House, also a 42-story condo tower coming soon to 200 Central Avenue.

Art House, which launched sales at the beginning of February, has already received reservations for over 100 of its 244 residential units.

Amid the fanfare of the coronavirus pandemic, a significant project in Downtown St. Pete has taken steps toward becoming a reality. Saltaire, a 35-story condominium tower proposed for 300 1st Street South, recently announced it has broken ground on the site of the former parking lot of the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront Hotel.

Back in October 2019, Ashford Hospitality Trust, the owner of the Hilton Bayfront, sold the hotel’s 1.65 acre parking lot to KT St. Pete Bayfront, LLC for $17.5 million. KT St. Pete Bayfront, LLC is controlled by the Palm Beach County real estate development firm Kolter Group which is developing Saltaire.

A condominium tower proposed for Downtown St. Pete moved one step closer to reality with an important approval from St. Pete City Council. Yesterday afternoon, City Council reviewed the plans for Saltaire, a 35-story condo tower proposed for the parking lot of the Bayfront Hilton Hotel, for consistency with the Intown Redevelopment Plan (IRP).

The Intown Redevelopment Plan is a revitalization plan that was adopted in 1982 in order to facilitate public and private investment in Downtown St. Pete. Simply put, the IRP is a framework for new development in downtown.

After the completion of ONE St. Petersburg, a 41-story condo tower which became the city’s tallest building last year, the developer behind it, Kolter Group, is preparing to quietly launch pre-sales for its latest Downtown St. Pete project.

Reservations will begin this week for Saltaire, a proposed 35-story condominium tower which is slated to be built on the current surface parking lot of the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront Hotel located at 300 1st Street South.

The building will be marketed exclusively to owners of units at ONE St. Petersburg for two weeks, according to an email that was sent to residents. ONE St. Petersburg’s 253 units sold out over six months before completion, and some of the units have already been resold for returns in the 30-40% range. Reservations for units at Saltaire open to the general public on May 9th.

Five weeks ago it was revealed that the Kolter Group, the developers behind ONE St. Petersburg, a recently constructed 41-story condo and hotel project, were planning a second tower in Downtown St. Petersburg, FL. After the success of ONE, which completely sold out over six months before completion, Kolter knew the downtown market had an appetite for more condos. Kolter’s second project is proposed just three blocks south of ONE in the parking lot of the Hilton Bayfront Hotel and directly across from Al Lang Stadium. 

New information has surfaced about the project, which is now preliminarily known as Bayfront St. Petersburg. While it was previously announced that the tower would soar 35-stories, include 200 condominiums and ground floor retail, we now know a few more specifics about the total cost, the construction timeline, and what the tower will look like.

When the 41-story ONE St. Petersburg project was announced in June 2014, it was billed as a catalyst project for Downtown St. Pete. The CEO of the Kolter Group and developer behind the project, Bobby Julien, was quoted as saying, “[St. Pete’s] downtown is emerging as one of the nation's special urban centers, and we are excited to be a part of its future.”

But despite Julien’s excitement, many wondered whether St. Pete was ready for a project of this magnitude. How would these units be received in the market?

Back then there was a sense of emergence, a feeling that Downtown St. Pete was on the brink of something special in the creation of a livable and workable urban center. In 2014, it wasn’t quite there yet, but it was close.

Flash forward nearly five years later and construction is just wrapping up on 450 foot tower, now the city’s tallest building. Every single one of its 253 condominium residences sold out over six months before completion, and many have hit the resale market, some with nearly 42% premiums.