St. Pete's luxury-fueled identity crisis
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
A vacant downtown St. Petersburg apartment building, painted pink to promote the incoming Roche Bobois luxury condo tower. Photo: Kathryn Varn/Axios
St. Petersburg City Council member Richie Floyd's jaw hit the floor when he read how much it'll cost to join a members-only lounge coming soon to downtown's new Central Park food hall.
- For Tampa Bay's once-gritty city of the arts, where many residents are struggling with rising costs, $30,000 is a jarring figure. Yet, the co-owner told Axios he's been flooded with interest.
- "We actually can't keep up," said Mark Levey, who recently moved from Tampa to a condo on the 28th floor of The Residences at 400 Central, St. Pete's newest luxury high-rise.
Why it matters: The project is one of several that signal a burgeoning movement toward luxury and exclusivity intensified by a pandemic-induced influx of new residents — and wealth.
- "The only constant in the life of a city is it's going to change," said Floyd, who in 2021 voters elected to become Florida's only Democratic Socialist public official.
- "But the challenge now is there's not enough effort being made for that change to encompass everybody."
State of play: The trend is especially apparent in housing. St. Pete's skyline has exploded over the last seven years, driven by luxury condo towers like Saltaire, ONE St. Petersburg and Art House.
- The Waldorf Astoria Residences is expected to break ground this year and is set to eclipse 400 Central as the city's tallest building.
- Then there's the Roche Bobois tower, a 29-story condo building from the French high-end furniture designer and Clearwater's Valor Real Estate Development that recently sparked one of the most visible debates over St. Pete's shifting identity.
Zoom in: To promote the project, Valor commissioned local artists to paint the vacant apartments that will soon be demolished to make way for the tower.
- On the side of one century-old building, a cursive-scripted quote from Valor's Moises Agami looms over Fourth Avenue South: "Art is the ultimate luxury."
- The marketing stunt went viral, at least partially by design. New York real estate broker and "Owning Manhattan" star Ryan Serhant is leading sales at the property and shared a video from the pink buildings with his 3 million Instagram followers.
- Serhant was also on hand at a launch party last weekend with opulent French-themed decor and a performance by Ricky Martin.
Friction point: The promotion dovetails with the developer's plans to feature murals by local artists and a public art plaza in the tower, where studio condos will start around $500,000.
- "Art is the ethos of St. Pete, and it is this character that we're celebrating and bringing to life," Agami said in a news release.
- But some artists and observers criticized what they view as the developer's use of art to downplay gentrification.
What they're saying: "So, about that slogan, 'Art is the ultimate luxury'… That statement alone highlights everything wrong with the direction we're headed," said Leon "Tes One" Bedore, an artist who founded St. Pete's SHINE Mural Festival. "Luxury excludes. Art does not."
- "Local artists need more than walls to paint," Bedore added. "We need affordable studios, attainable housing, accessible venues and communities that aren't priced out of their own neighborhoods."
- Rhys Meatyard, another longtime Tampa Bay artist, echoed Bedore: "The reason why these pink buildings have pissed people off so much is it's a symptom of this greater rot," he told Axios. "It has big 'Let them eat cake' energy."
- Valor representatives declined to comment for this story.
Zoom out: The luxury trend has also seeped into more everyday spaces. One of the city's buzziest recent openings was St. Pete Athletic, billed by its owners as a Soho House-inspired "urban country club" anchored by pickleball.
- The impeccably curated space — with sleek furniture, local art and, on the menu at in-house restaurant Rose's, a $50 Caesar salad-beef tallow fries-martini dinner for two served on a silver platter — is going for "approachable luxury," managing operator Reuben Pressman said.
- Situated in the Warehouse Arts District in a building that was once partially art studios, the club is both open to the public and has memberships for $250 a month that grant access to private spaces like a gym and lounge, plus discounts on food and merch.
- All 800 initial memberships sold out before the club opened, and nearly 500 people are on the waitlist, said Pressman, an entrepreneur and longtime St. Pete resident. His partners also have deep roots in the city.
"None of us are luxurious people by any means. We like well-curated, well-designed spaces," he said.
- "I think everybody does."
What's next: There are two schools of thought on whether the trend will continue, said Cedric Harris, a longtime resident behind the satire page St. Pete Razing, which plays on the name of development news website St. Pete Rising.
- Some people feel it's a bubble that will eventually pop.
- "The other feeling is this is going to keep continuing until they push everything out," Harris said.
Another luxury project has already appeared on the horizon, St. Pete Rising reported last month. Developers are scouting locations for a possible Four Seasons.