Investor scoops up Dairy Inn site for luxury townhome development
/St. Pete's iconic Dairy Inn ice cream shop, which closed its doors in November after operating for 76 years in Crescent Lake, will be razed for a new residential development.
Local real estate investor Everett Vance, owner of The Vance Group and broker at Premier Properties, plans to build six modern luxury townhomes on the corner lot at 1201 Martin Luther King Jr. Street North.
He purchased the site in December for $740,000.
"For me, this will be my first multi-family project. I typically work on single-family homes," Vance said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.
Read More

Just in time for Halloween, a 1939 bungalow in the Central Oak Park neighborhood will become a new home for St. Petersburg’s paranormal activity.
Dr. Brandy Stark, founder of Spirits of St. Petersburg, will soft open the Museum of Haunted History at 4754 1st Avenue North on Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24, from 6 to 9 p.m.
The museum will display haunted and historic objects, including a wedding dress associated with a spirit named Irene, antiques, dolls, and artifacts from the group’s past investigations.
It will also include a spiritual apothecary and space for psychic readings, workshops, meetings, and future overnight investigations.
Stark has been investigating paranormal activity since 1997. She has led local ghost tours, investigated hundreds of cases, and written Supernatural St. Petersburg and Paranormal Pinellas Vol. 1 & 2.
“I’ve always wanted to present the supernatural in a manner that, number one, is safe, number two, is educational, and number three, is a little bit of fun,” Stark said in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.