March 17, 2025

Prepared meal company Ideal Nutrition expanding to downtown St. Pete

March 17, 2025/ Veronica Brezina

Ideal Nutrition, a South Florida-based provider of fresh, pre-prepared meals, is set to open a new retail location in downtown St. Pete.

The 1,770-square-foot store is currently under construction and expected to open by the end of the year at 360 2nd Avenue South, on the ground floor of the 23-story, 220-unit Evo apartment building.

The expansion marks the company's entry into the Tampa Bay market, offering a selection of ready-to-eat meals designed to accommodate various dietary preferences.

The St. Pete location will offer over 40 meals, ranging from traditional plates to paleo, keto, vegetarian, vegan, and others priced at $8.49.

March 14, 2025

St. Pete investor offers $260 million to buy 86-acre Tropicana Field site

March 14, 2025/ Veronica Brezina

Prominent Tampa Bay investor Thompson Whitney Blake is offering the City of St. Petersburg $260 million in an all-cash deal to buy the Gas Plant District following the Tampa Bay Rays' abrupt announcement of abandoning the stadium agreement.

"We, along with all of the other residents in town, have listened to a decade of dialogues, debates, pundits, and prognosticators, lawyers, and talking heads... In our opinion, this project needs someone to do what my mom has always said, 'put your money where your mouth is.' So, here we go," Blake, CEO of private equity firm Blake Investment Partners, wrote in a letter to Mayor Ken Welch and the St. Petersburg City Council.

The offer letter was sent on Thursday, March 13, shortly after the Tampa Bay Rays announced on social media that they were withdrawing from the $1.37 billion deal to build a new stadium in downtown St. Petersburg. The team cited unforeseen challenges from back-to-back hurricanes and prolonged negotiations as reasons for their decision.

March 12, 2025

Century-old Playhouse Theatre to be demolished for redevelopment in the Grand Central District

March 12, 2025/ Veronica Brezina

Boarded-up windows and crumbling stucco line the exterior of the former Playhouse Theatre—a once-thriving venue for the latest Hollywood movies and traveling performers.

The long-vacant, 100-year-old theater at 1850 Central Avenue may soon be demolished to make way for a new development featuring office space and retail.

The site is located next to an Interstate 275 overpass and adjacent to the Trails Crossing development, a proposed linear park featuring public art and event spaces that is being studied for the area under I-275.

March 07, 2025

Trails Crossing, a new linear park under I-275 in downtown St. Pete, moves forward after City Council vote

March 07, 2025/ Veronica Brezina

Four blocks of underutilized space beneath Interstate 275 in downtown St. Pete could be transformed into a new linear park featuring public art and event spaces, creating a destination for pedestrians and cyclists.

In a 7-to-1 vote, City Council approved an agreement on Thursday to contribute $150,000 toward hiring Colorado-based LandDesign, Inc. to kick off the master planning process for Trails Crossing, a walkable, activated park under I-275 that will embrace micro-transit and connect urban neighborhoods—an idea that has been in discussion for years.

“For too long, our community has been physically, socially, and economically divided by infrastructure that was never designed with connectivity in mind,” said John Barkett, a local developer and co-founder of the nonprofit group Friends of Trails Crossing, during Thursday’s meeting.

March 06, 2025

Seymour’s is now open, serving up scratch-made NY-style eats in downtown St. Pete

March 06, 2025/ Veronica Brezina

The team behind Pete’s Bagels has opened their latest venture—a warm and welcoming Jewish-inspired cafe and coffee shop in downtown St. Pete.

Seymour’s quietly debuted last week at 407 Central Avenue, inside the historic 99-year-old Snell Arcade and directly across from the Residences at 400 Central, which will be the largest residential tower on Florida’s Gulf Coast once complete. The space was previously home to Samurai Cat Japanese Café and Bakery, and before that Beans and Barlour .

Seymour’s—named in honor of owner Steven Peterman’s grandfather—offers a menu of New York deli-style cuisine for breakfast and lunch and coffee courtesy of local roaster Look Alive Coffee.

“My grandfather was a typical guy from New Jersey with an upbeat attitude,” Peterman said in a recent interview with St. Pete Rising. “He was born in 1928 in Newark, NJ. He liked his bagels scooped, ate his pickles on the side, and loved a good rye bread sandwich.”