Originally constructed in 1924, 490 First Avenue South consists of three modern and integrated buildings with additions being completed in 1968 and 1988.

ORLANDO—The Tampa Bay Times Building in Saint Petersburg, FL has traded hands. Denholtz Associates snapped up the asset in a joint venture partnership with Convergent Capital Partners for $19 million.

The eight-floor class A office property spans 240,000 square feet. It sits at 490 1^st Avenue South. The Tampa Bay Times will continue to headquarter at the office building after singing a 150-year lease to occupy 110,000 square feet.

“The Saint Petersburg office market is extremely vibrant with limited availability,” Steven Denholtz, CEO of Denholtz, tells GlobeSt.com. “It has become what is called an 18-hour city. This means that Saint Pete is attractive to Millennials who can live, work and play in the same town. The downtown area and waterfront in this market has been magnificently developed where people can walk to work, then walk to bars and restaurants. Saint Pete has one of the highest walkability ratings in the country.”

Denholtz explains that his firm had had a relationship with the Tampa Bay Times and the community that it serves for over 20 years. The joint venture plans to make capital improvements to the office asset. Plans call for improvements to the lobby, café, common spaces and mechanicals to raise the property's profile in the Downtown Saint Petersburg market.

“This is our second major office acquisition in the Downtown Saint Petersburg market in the past two years,” says Nik Sachdev, managing director of Convergent. “We are very bullish on the growth happening in Saint Petersburg, and are excited to be a part of it.”

Originally constructed in 1924, 490 First Avenue South consists of three modern and integrated buildings with additions being completed in 1968 and 1988. A 2,650 square foot auditorium on the first floor, a two-story photography studio located on the fourth floor and a flexible design allowing spaces to be built to suit make the building stand out.

“We are not he only developers who have also been attracted to the very pro-business political environment in Saint Pete, as there is new, high-quality development from national builders popping up everywhere,” Denholtz says. “This is one of the reasons why we are so confident in the $10million capital improvements plan we have in place in order to make this asset one of the best in a very competitive market.”

The building is within walking distance of dozens of retail shops and restaurants, museums, the Mahaffey Theater, a Publix grocery store, the Saint Petersburg Yacht Club and thousands of residential units. Centennial Bank financed the acquisition. W. Kent Ihrig of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick Denholtz and Convergent in this transaction. Mercedes Angell and Wendy Griffin of Cushman & Wakefield consulted the buyer. David Box of Box Realty represented the seller, Times Publishing.

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City's Newspaper Sells its HQ Office Building

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