In December, St. Pete Rising announced that the City of St. Petersburg had received an unsolicited offer to purchase and redevelop the Municipal Services Center at 1 Fourth Street in Downtown St. Pete.

The Municipal Services Center, or MSC for short, is an 11-story city-owned office building that primarily houses City of St. Pete services such as the planning department, code enforcement, and parking management. The building has millions of dollars in deferred maintenance and as a result the City has been exploring ways to renovate or build a new Municipal Services Center. Also, the MSC building is located directly on Central Avenue yet has no ground floor retail. The City hopes the redevelopment of the building will reactivate that portion of Central Avenue.

As a refresher, the New York-based Property Markets Group (PMG) offered the City $12 million for the 0.8 acre lot that sits along Central Avenue between 3rd Streets and 4th Streets. Under their proposal, PMG would construct a new MSC building across from City Hall on 2nd Avenue North, about two blocks away. The new MSC building would contain 100,000 square feet of Class A office space along with 220 apartments and parking.

Once the new Municipal Services Center was built, PMG would redevelop the existing MSC building along Central Avenue. Conceptually, the group proposed a 1.5 million square foot building featuring 100,000 square feet of office space, 100,000 square feet of retail space, a 200+ key hotel, 500 residential units, and 1,000 parking spaces.

In receiving PMG’s unsolicited offer, the City was legally required to solicit proposals from other groups before making a decision to sell the building. Submissions were due on January 31st at 10AM and the City received four additional proposals from the following companies:

• Allen Morris, the Miami-based developer behind The Hermitage, an apartment building which opened in 2017 at 151 7th Street South..

• BLAKE Investment Partners, a local private equity firm

• Lincoln Property Company, a national real estate development and management company

• ECHELON, LLC, a local real estate company which is developing Echelon City Center at the Carillon Office Park in north St. Pete.

Each of the submissions proposes building a new MSC building along 2nd Avenue North. And while the financial terms of each deal are relatively similar, they have slight differences, from design to composition of uses. Here’s an overview of the the four new submissions:

Allen Morris

Like PMG’s proposal, Allen Morris would develop a 150,000 square foot Class B office building across from City Hall on 2nd Avenue North to replace the existing MSC building. The building would be 12 stories and feature a 300 space parking garage. The new building would take around 27 months to complete and would cost around $45 million. One cool factor is that the parking garage would be designed to accommodate a future conversion to office space.

Once the new MSC building wrapped up, Allen Morris would develop a 280,000 square foot building along Central Avenue that would feature a combination of ground-floor retail, office space, residential units, and a hotel. Although the final uses are still in the early concept stages, the developer would agree to set aside up to 10% of the residential units toward workforce housing.

Blake Investment Partners

 While Allen Morris is proposing a 150,000 square foot MSC building, Blake’s proposal only calls for 120,000 square feet. And of that, approximately 20,000 square feet would be left unfinished for future city expansion while the other 100,000 square feet would be finished for immediate use. A new 600 space parking deck would also be built.

Blake’s proposal for a new MSC building is pretty similar to the other proposals but their concept for Central Avenue portion of the project is unique. Unlike the other proposals, Blake would like to maintain the current MSC building as long-term affordable office space.

The proposal notes, “Blake believes this property represents the only way the City will be able to offer affordable, second generation space at reasonable rates on any scale.” Blake notes that keeping the existing MSC building office space would allow it to be completed within 12 months and would minimize disruption along Central Avenue.

Lincoln Property Company

Along 2nd Avenue North, Lincoln is proposing a “twin tower” mid-rise concept with 250,000 square feet of Class A office space. The development would include 150,000 square feet for the City’s use and an additional 100,000 square feet of speculative office space. Both towers would sit on a pedestal that featured 30,000 square feet of retail space and a 1,000 space parking garage. The development would frame a new public plaza with open space.

For the Central Avenue portion of the project, Lincoln presents a concept similar to PMG with a mix of uses and intense density. The development would contain up to 200,000 square feet of Class A office space, 400 residential units, a “Club Level” restaurant and meeting space, a 200-key hotel, and 25,000 square feet of ground-level retail. The building would also have a 1,200 space parking garage.

ECHELON, LLC

Echelon is a developer that’s very familiar with the area and is headquartered in Downtown St. Pete. They’re planning on partnering with Third Lake Capital, the owner of 200 Central, the city’s tallest office tower, and have submitted two options for redevelopment. The first option would consist of developing a new MSC building on 2nd Avenue North along with an adjacent 20-story residential building.

The new MSC complex and adjacent residential building would be designed with a Mediterranean architecture and the developer would agree to set aside at least 20% of the units for workforce housing. The second option only offers to build a new MSC building without a future residential or retail component.

The existing MSC building along Central Avenue would then be renovated and used as office space in the interim with ground-floor retail being added to activate Central Avenue. However the long term plan would be to demolish the building and redevelop it to compliment the 200 Central office tower.

The proposal notes, “The re-development of the MSC site will incorporate mixed uses and parking to support the maximum development potential of both the MSC property, and the vacant portion of the 200 Central site,” The parking lot in reference is located on the southeast corner of Central Avenue and 3rd Street.

Ultimately, the decision of which proposal to accept is up to Mayor Kriseman. As with past selections, it’s likely that the City will invite one or more of the firms to present their proposals at City Hall. If one submission is ultimately selected, the City will begin negotiations on the terms of the project. Once terms are agreed upon, they would need to go before City Council for final approval. Given the timeline, construction on a new MSC building is likely at least 12 to 18 months away.

You can view each of the proposals on the City’s website.