St. Pete Catalyst; Published By: Veronica Brezina
The once-thriving Central Plaza, the first regional shopping center in the city that now boasts a barren parking lot and “for lease” signs on empty retail spaces, will serve a completely new purpose in the evolving Grand Union District.
St. Pete developers Jon Daou, largely credited with the development of the Edge District, and Blake Whitney Thompson of Blake Investment Partners have teamed up with Washington, D.C.-based firm Kettler to breathe new life into the Central Plaza property by bringing new retail and hundreds of apartments to the site.
The partners purchased the property at 32355 Central Ave. from Miami-based Saglo Development Corp. in a $13 million deal.
Central Plaza has played a key role in the development of the area for decades. Built-in the early 1950s, it was the first major commercial threat to downtown St. Petersburg businesses.
Today, the plaza sits on three acres and currently houses retail businesses Hibbett Sports, Family Dollar, CitiTrends, and Octapharma Plasma, a plasma donor center. Read more
