KellyPartners+FRS is preparing to move its longtime St. Petersburg accounting operation into a new Clearwater office, with room to grow its local workforce from about 35 employees to roughly 50.
The firm provides accounting, tax planning, business valuation and succession-planning services, including work for McDonald’s franchise owners around the country. Its new 7,840-square-foot office will occupy part of the fifth floor at Bayside Center, 17757 U.S. 19 N.
The move comes nearly two years after Australian accounting company Kelly Partners acquired a 51% stake in FRS, a St. Petersburg firm that had operated from 1301 66th Street N. for decades.
Partner Craig Kessler said modernizing the office was part of that agreement, but the company also needs room for expected growth.
A major part of that growth is coming from its work with McDonald’s operators. KellyPartners+FRS handles accounting, tax, business valuations and succession planning for franchise owners and also runs a program at McDonald’s Chicago headquarters that trains company representatives on buying and selling restaurants and obtaining financing.
Kessler said that work has been expanding as McDonald’s sells some company-owned restaurants to franchisees and continues opening new locations.
“There are a lot more clients coming our way,” Kessler said. “So yeah, we’ll need to expand.”
The St. Petersburg office currently has about 35 employees. Kessler said the new space is being designed to accommodate about 50.
The company also operates an office in Cary, North Carolina, with about 15 employees. Kelly+Partners has offices across Australia as well as operations in the United States, Ireland and Asia.
The new Pinellas office is at Bayside Center, a six-story Class A office building along U.S. 19 in Clearwater. Cushman & Wakefield lists the building at nearly 168,000 square feet and markets its access to U.S. 19, nearby airports and the broader Tampa Bay labor pool.
Kessler said the firm initially looked at the Franklin Templeton complex but changed direction when the timing there did not line up with its planned move.
Bayside Center moved faster.
“They’ve been great, very accommodating, sticking to the timeline that we need and moving things along perfectly,” Kessler said.
The new office is similar in size to the firm’s current St. Petersburg space, but Kessler said the layout will allow it to fit more employees. The 66th Street office was built out with individual offices for nearly everyone, taking up space the firm now wants to use differently.
A recently filed permit values the interior buildout at about $522,000. Kessler said the landlord is providing a tenant-improvement allowance in roughly the mid-$500,000 range, while Kelly Partners is spending another $150,000 to $170,000 on materials and upgrades needed to match the company’s office standards.
Furniture and other costs will push the total investment above $1 million, he said.
Construction is expected to finish around Dec. 28, with employees moving in during early January 2027.
The move will also free up the firm’s longtime St. Petersburg building. Kessler said the property is owned by retired former FRS partners, who put it on the market after learning the firm planned to leave.
Kessler also expects artificial intelligence to change the kind of work done inside the new office.
He said AI is increasingly able to handle repetitive accounting preparation, allowing employees to spend more time reviewing work and advising clients. Rather than expecting that to reduce headcount, Kessler said the firm believes it could help support additional hiring.
“We believe that AI will actually allow us to employ more people,” he said. “We’re going to need higher-level people that can do more of a review-level type work instead of the monotonous preparation that AI can kind of take care of.”
That hiring is expected to happen over the next several years as the company adds clients.
“We’re definitely optimistic about it,” Kessler said.