Tampa Bay Submarket Booming, Office Changing

SAINT PETERSBERG, FL—The Tampa Bay area's office market is evolving and JLL is in the middle of the fray. The brokerage firm just won the assignment to lease 100 Central, a 135-square-foot, two-story class A office building in Downtown Saint Petersburg.

JLL senior vice president David Green and vice president Deana Beer are leading the leasing efforts at the office property owned by an affiliate of Convergent Capital Partners. The building is located at 100 Central Avenue.

“With a large amount of contiguous office space available and highly desirable location within St. Petersburg's Central Business District, 100 Central is ideal for corporate users seeking a class A office space in a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly city center,” says Green. “The building's convenient access to more than 76 restaurants and 18 hotels in the surrounding area offers additional value to prospective tenants.” 

The Saint Petersburg submarket is booming with hotel, commercial, and recreational development, a large workforce, and a variety of housing options. 100 Central is located within five minutes of Interstates 75 and 275 and other major thoroughfares. At the same time, the Tampa Bay area is seeing plenty of action on the office front in the fourth quarter

Tampa City Center just sold for $128 million, along with the New York Life Building. Healthcare Realty acquired a Tampa medical office building in September and in August Akerman inked one of the largest Tampa law firm office renewals of 2014 and Jackson Hewitt signed the year's largest Sarasota office lease and JP Morgan inked Tampa's largest office lease of 2014.

Clay Witherspoon, a principal and managing director in Avison Young's Tampa office, tells GlobeSt.com the way landlords perceive the office market has changed this year. Tampa office tenants with leases nearing expiration are faced with a two-fold problem: limited options and increased rental rates. Landlords and tenants alike are exploring options for quality “like new” affordable office space.

“Changes in space and utilization requirements along with a new demand for overall property activation is something tenants are demanding and ownership is navigating,” Witherspoon says. “Requirements we are seeing are that buildings incorporate technology, offer shared spaces to work in common areas, and provide better dinning and lifestyle options to relive stress on the workforce and clients.”