Pinellas Park site to be developed into mixed-use project with apartments and commercial space
/The mixed-use project will be located at 7725 78th Street North in front of the M & N Event Hall | google Streetview
A 5.98-acre, partly vacant property in Pinellas Park is slated for redevelopment into a mixed-use project with apartments, retail and office space.
On Tuesday, October 20th, the Pinellas Park City Council approved a major Planned Unit Development (PUD) amendment for a 32-unit, four-story apartment building and an 8,000-square-foot, two-story building with a clubhouse and commercial space at 7725 78th Street North.
The property currently houses a 9,700-square-foot wedding venue and catering establishment, M & N Event Hall, which would remain. To the north and west are vacant commercial properties in unincorporated Pinellas County, formerly the Wagon Wheel Flea Market.
Map of project location at 7725 78th Street North | City of Pinellas Park documents
The site was first approved for mixed-use redevelopment in 2022 with 54 apartments and 4,000 square feet of commercial space, but that approval expired because no work started within six months.
In 2024, the council approved a revised plan with 32 units and a 4,000-square-foot, one-story commercial building. The latest amendment keeps the unit count and density the same but changes the size and location of the commercial building, doubling it to 8,000 square feet and adding a second floor.
“I wanted to talk about why we are doing this and why it requires a PUD amendment. We are swapping the two buildings, the residential building and the commercial building, and the commercial building is getting an extra floor,” Matt Sylverain, principal of Gulf Coast Consulting Inc., said at the meeting.
“We are adding an extra floor because we ran out of room in the residential building for a clubhouse, amenities or a gym, so we are placing it in the same building where we are going to have the commercial space,” he said.
Site plan of Magnolia Apartments (building 1) and clubhouse and commercial space (building 2) | gulf coast consulting Inc.
QT Construction is the developer. The four-story, L-shaped residential building, named Magnolia Apartments, will total about 59,120 square feet, with layouts ranging from one to four bedrooms.
The first floor of the smaller building will house a clubhouse and pool house, with an outdoor pool and other amenities. The second floor will have office, retail and personal services space.
A 200-space surface parking lot would sit in the heart of the development. Sylverain noted that a grass lot south of the site could also be used for overflow parking.
A construction timeline was not disclosed.
City Council members confirmed that the conditions set in 2022 would carry over to the revised plan. That year, the site was rezoned from Heavy Commercial to General Commercial (B-1) with a Mixed Use PUD overlay.
The conditions included amenities around the shared pond, no balconies on the east side of the apartment building, and stop signs and speed humps installed with Public Works approval.
