New rooftop restaurants and retail to be built near Largo's Horizon West Bay development
/The new 11,175-square-foot building would have a mix of retail on the ground floor and causal dining restaurants with a rooftop component | the ardent companies | colliers
As new transformative projects are underway in Largo, a vacant property near the city's future Horizon West Bay mixed-use development will be redeveloped into a new retail and restaurant destination.
Atlanta-based real estate investment firm The Ardent Companies plans to construct a 11,175-square-foot building at the southwest corner of 4th Street Southwest and West Bay Drive.
The company acquired the Largo property for $1.85 million last year from the church directly across the street, The Liberty Worship Center Inc.
site plan of Liberty yards | the ardent companies
The new two-story building, dubbed Liberty Yards as a nod to the Liberty Worship Center, will have a mix of ground-floor retail and restaurants, outdoor patio seating, and an open-air rooftop bar/dining area.
“We believe the investment in the downtown corridor along West Bay will be transformational and we want to be part of that, creating an experience for those to dine and shop downtown,” The Ardent Companies Executive Director Jay Douglas said to St. Pete Rising.
The two end cap retail spaces will offer flexible space from 2,000 to 4,000 square feet. The remaining 8,000 square feet between the two units will consists of Class A retailers.
“It’s important to us to have the rooftop terraces at the end caps. We are working with a couple of restaurant groups for those spaces,” Douglas said.
A rendering of liberty landings on west bay drive | the ardent companies | colliers
The commercial space is currently being marketed for lease by Jaclyn Langholz of Colliers.
Douglas said the team is in conversations with several potential tenants and construction will commence once they have secured leases for the end cap units.
Pending the lease executions, he anticipates Liberty Yards will open by early 2026.
Liberty Yards will have around 44 surface parking spaces, including street parking and shared parking with the church, which was a condition of the purchase agreement.
The Ardent Companies is working with local civil engineering and landscape firm Kimley-Horn Associates and Phillips Partnership, an architecture, engineering, planning, and design firm based in Atlanta.
A rendering of the Horizon West Bay development, which is under construction and will be completed later this year | City of lARGO
Liberty Yards will be directly across the street from the Horizon West Bay project, which will house 200 employees. The Horizon West Bay is an $81 million dollar mixed-use development that includes a new Largo City Hall, 18,000 square feet of retail space and a parking garage.
Completion on Horizon West Bay is expected in mid-2025.
Douglas said Ardent may explore additional development opportunities in the Tampa Bay region. However, Liberty Yards is the only project the team is actively developing in Tampa Bay.
