Empath Health site in Largo sells for $19 million, 376-unit apartment community planned
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Greystar has purchased the Empath Health campus on Roosevelt Boulevard in largo | Empath health
The largest multifamily housing owner, manager, and developer in the U.S. has acquired a 21.8-acre property in Largo, where it will build a new apartment community.
Greystar Real Estate Partners purchased the property at 5771 Roosevelt Boulevard for $19.25 million from Empath Health, according to a deed recorded on Thursday with the Pinellas County Clerk’s office.
The development group also took out a $68 million construction loan from CIBC Bank USA.
For Empath Health, the sale is one step in a broader plan to modernize operations and better align physical spaces with current workforce needs and community care.
“This is not a downsizing,” said Jonathan Fleece, President and CEO of Empath Health in a statement lsat year. “It’s a right-sizing. The sale enables us to invest more meaningfully in our colleagues and the systems that support compassionate care, while staying firmly planted in the communities we serve.”
Empath will shift administrative functions currently based at Roosevelt to other support sites in Palm Harbor and St. Pete. There will be no disruption to patients or family services.
Greystar Real Estate Partners has purchased a 22-acre Empath Health campus in Largo for $19.25 million | Google Maps
Greystar will demolish the existing buildings and develop Birchway Bayside, a 376-unit apartment community spanning 19 buildings with a mix of apartments and townhomes.
The group had been under contract to purchase the site for nearly a year.
The planned community will have green space with gravel paths, gardens, sports areas, two dog parks, playgrounds, a potential putting green, a pool with an accompanying clubhouse, a shaded hammock area, and a walking trail along a large stormwater pond.
The community will contain 693 parking spaces, mostly surface parking, along with a handful of covered spaces and two-car garages for townhome residents.
Of the 376 planned apartments at Birchway Bayside, 151 will be set aside as income-restricted affordable housing. The remaining units will be offered at market rates.
The affordable housing component is a requirement under Florida’s Live Local Act (LLA), a statewide law passed in 2023 that is designed to expand affordable and workforce housing options.
the proposed Birchway Bayside community will offer 288 apartments and 88 townhomes | Architectural Alliance Landscape
The Live Local Act allows residential development on non-residentially zoned properties if at least 40% of the units are reserved for households earning up to 120% of the area median income (AMI).
The Roosevelt Boulevard site, designated Residential/Office General (R/OG) on Largo’s Future Land Use Map, qualifies under the statute.
Birchway Bayside is among the first projects in Largo to utilize the Live Local Act.
The city’s first development filed under the law was Caspia Apartments (formerly Allora), a 240-unit community by Belleair Development Group and Trammell Crow Residential that is currently under construction and expected to open in the coming months.
Since then, additional projects have been proposed under the legislation.
a representation of what greystar envisions for its new bayside development in largo | greystar
Birchway Bayside is currently in permitting and a groundbreaking date has not been announced; however, Jonathon Howard, managing director at Greystar, said construction could begin in 2026, with the first residents moving in by 2028, pending necessary approvals.
In addition to Birchway Bayside, Greystar built the 36-story Ascent St. Pete luxury apartment tower and the adjacent 172-room AC Hotel by Marriott in downtown St. Pete, as well as the 412-unit Marlowe Gateway apartment community in north St. Pete.
The company also recently broke ground on The Henry at Whitney Village, a 325-unit apartment and retail development near the Grand Central District that’s projected to be completed by 2027.
