Earlier this week, the City of St. Pete’s Development Review Commission unanimously approved of Floor Area Ratio (FAR) bonuses, a building height bonus, and a site plan to construct Sky St. Pete, a 20-story 232-unit apartment tower proposed northwest of the EDGE District in downtown St. Pete. 

The 212-foot-tall tower will be constructed on a 0.73-acre site located at 1624, 1642, 1650 and 1662 Burlington Avenue North. The property is currently occupied by a vacant dirt lot and seven residential structures with eight dwelling units. These buildings will be demolished to accommodate the new development. 

The $94 million project, which is being developed by Michigan-based DevMar Development, was announced on St. Pete Rising in June. In August, City Council, meeting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, approved the development.

Sky St. Pete will be the third project in St. Pete for DevMar. In 2020, the company completed their first St. Pete project, Vantage St. Pete, an 11-story 211-unit apartment building located one block south of Sky St. Pete. The firm is currently under construction on The Metro, a 100-unit apartment project in the EDGE District, which is expected to open in early 2023.

According to plans recently submitted to the city, plans for Sky St. Pete have slightly changed since we first reported on the project in June. Originally, the development was expected to have 246 apartments. Now, the community will include 232 units. Additionally, the parking has been reduced from 241 spaces to 230 spaces.

The ground floor of Sky St. Pete will consist of a residential lobby, residential units, bike storage, leasing office, back-of-house facilities and an entrance to the parking garage and ground floor parking.

Floors two through five will consist of parking. Floors six and seven will consist of residential units and an indoor-outdoor amenity space featuring a resort-style pool and deck area with outdoor poolside seating and a perimeter terrace.

The eight through the 19th floor will consist of residential units and the 20th floor will consist of residential units and an indoor-outdoor amenity space overlooking downtown St. Pete. 

The tower will sit in the Downtown Center-2 (DC-2) zoning district.  The base approval in DC-2 is 3.0 FAR with maximum FAR of 7.0. The building is seeking approval for an FAR of 6.92 and will utilize several FAR bonuses to achieve this.

For the first 1.5 FAR bonus, the DevMar will contribute a minimum of $765,000 to the City’s Housing Capital Improvements Projects (HCIP) trust fund to aid in the city’s workforce housing efforts.

The project was also granted 0.5 FAR by purchasing Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) from a locally designated landmark or landmark site.

Another 1.0 FAR was approved for planning to construct the tower under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards.

The final 1.0 FAR bonuses will be achieved by providing a minimum of $255,000 to the city’s Streetscape Improvement program.

In addition to Fusco, Shaffer & Pappas as the project’s architect, the development team includes George F. Young as the civil engineer, Emerald Engineering Inc as the mechanical and electrical engineer, and Booth Design Group as the landscape architect.

Construction is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2023 with a completion by the end of 2025.