St. Petersburg has never been more in demand. We have new businesses and residents moving to the city every day. At St. Pete Rising, we love reporting on everything new and coming soon to the Sunshine City.

But with growth comes growing pains. Right now, we have a residential supply and demand imbalance in St. Pete. For a variety of reasons, such as minimal supply and an influx of new residents, St. Pete is seeing an unprecedented rise in home values and rent prices.

According to a recent report from Realtor.com, the median rent in Tampa Bay increased 6.9% year-over-year to $1,375 per month, representing one of the largest rent increases in the U.S. and the largest among Florida’s major metro areas.

There are no easy fixes to our housing affordability issues (or we would have already solved them!). There isn’t a single solution either. The only way to drive down the cost of housing in St. Pete is to implement a number of smaller solutions, which combined can have a big impact. One solution should be obvious – we need to build more housing. And that’s where private developers like Stoneweg can step in.

Stoneweg, a St. Pete-based real estate investment firm specializing in multifamily acquisitions and developments, recently purchased two large properties in south St. Pete in an effort to bring more workforce housing to the city.

Workforce housing is defined as housing affordable to households earning between 60 and 120 percent of area median income (AMI).

In March, Stoneweg purchased the beleaguered Coquina Key Plaza located at 4350 6th Street South for $8.9 million. The 14.3-acre shopping center is currently anchored by a CVS, Save-A-Lot, Family Dollar, and a half-constructed Ace Hardware.

Over the years, the plaza has fallen into disrepair and has become a haven for crime. In December 2019, eight people were injured in a shooting outside of Cabana Sands, a nightclub that opened at Coquina Key Plaza in 2018.

Stoneweg hopes to immediately clean up the shopping center and eventually convert the property into a mixed-use development that features both retail space and workforce housing. It’s currently unclear whether housing will be built around the current structures or if the entire shopping plaza will be razed to make way for an entirely new development.

“I met with [the new owner] recently to discuss the many issues we’ve had with this property,” said Councilwoman Gina Driscoll in a Facebook post on April 14th. “The first thing he did was apply for a permit to take down this sign, which happened last week. Then he asked me how he can work with the Police Department to improve public safety there. Neighborhood relations is a priority for this owner. What a refreshing change!”

Just a mile north of Coquina Key Plaza, on April 15th, Stoneweg purchased a 15-acre tract of land on Lake Maggiore for $6.4 million. The property was formerly home to the Bay Mobile Home Park, which was demolished between 2006 and 2008.

Similar to Coquina Key, the plan for the Lake Maggiore lot is to construct workforce housing units.

Details such as exact unit count and timeline are not yet available for either project. That information will start to come into focus as Stoneweg goes through the site plan approval process and permitting. However, based on the current zoning, both sites could accommodate a few hundred residential units each. 

“Providing sustainable, resilient, and community-centric workforce housing to renters is an essential part of our DNA and critical to our corporate mission,” said Patrick Richard, CEO for Stoneweg US. “The acquisition of Lake Maggiore and Coquina Key provides an additional opportunity for us to provide renters in our St. Petersburg hometown with attainable and optimal living solutions which is key for us.”

Founded in 2016, Stoneweg US manages 11,700 units in 19 different States and focuses its investments and asset management on multifamily class B and class C products located in secondary and tertiary markets.

Although there are a number of affordable or workforce housing developments currently in the works for St. Pete, Stoneweg’s projects have the potential to transform two major underutilized parcels and provide much-needed workforce housing to south St. Pete.