14-story apartment tower breaks ground in St. Petersburg’s Echelon City Center

New high-rises, green space, and retail are underway in St. Petersburg’s Carillon Office Park for the master-planned Echelon City Center development.

Echelon City Center, first announced in the early 2000s, is a 20.5-acre mixed-use project being developed by Echelon, a St. Petersburg-based real estate company.

The vision of Echelon City Center is similar to Midtown, an urban neighborhood between Tampa's Westshore and Downtown districts, anchored by a Whole Foods Market and features retailers such as REI.

The new mixed-use apartment tower now under construction at sites 7 and 8 in the echelon city center | ARC3 architecture

In March, Echelon and South Florida-based general contractor KAST Construction broke ground on a 14-story luxury apartment tower across from a Publix Super Market and between two recently completed multifamily developments - the 15-story WaterView and the five-story Axio at Carillon apartments.

Located on Site 7 & 8 of the Echelon City Center development, the 363-unit complex is under construction at the southeast corner of Carillon Parkway and Main Street. It will include over 17,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a five-level parking garage, secured bicycle parking, and three-story townhomes.

The sixth-floor amenity level will have a pool deck with outdoor gaming and lounging areas with an indoor fitness center, clubroom, a virtual sports simulator, and co-working space.

The pool and amenities at the new apartment tower | arc3 architecture

Echelon is working with ARC3 Architecture, which designed several other buildings in the Echelon City Center development. Construction is estimated to take 26 months with an opening expected in summer 2026.

The project is the latest building to break ground at Echelon City Center.

Nearby, KAST Construction crews are building Park & Main, a 17-story apartment building at 221 Main Street North, which abuts the main street to the north and a future park to the south.

The Park & Main tower under construction at 221 Main Street North | St. Pete Rising

Park & Main, which topped out in 2023 at 187 feet tall, is one of the tallest buildings in St. Petersburg outside of downtown. Park & Main will have 176 units with first move-ins expected in May.

Park & Main will feature 16,350 square feet of ground-floor retail space with five floors of parking. Floors 7 through 15 will feature one- and two-bedroom apartments. The remaining floors, floors 16 and 17, will have eight large townhome units and penthouses on the top floor.

The residential amenities on the rooftop deck will include a pool, a fitness center, a lounge area, a private movie theater, conference rooms, and office workstations.

a site plan and layout of echelon city center | echelon

While construction is wrapping up for Park & Main, Echelon is drawing up plans for Site 2, which is slated to become a mixed-use development with apartments, a 120-key hotel, retail uses, offices, and parking. The site is currently a surface parking lot.

Echelon also plans to bring a dog park to the city center and remodel the existing two-mile-long boardwalk that surrounds Lake Carillon.

At full completion, the Echelon City Center will have over 2,300 multifamily units, 150,000 square feet of retail, and 20,000 square feet of office space.

Today, Carillon houses some of the county's largest employers, including Raymond James Financial, Franklin Templeton Investments, Transamerica, and PSCU.

Last year, Topgolf opened an indoor golf entertainment facility at 220 Carillon Parkway.