{"id":165750,"date":"2026-02-23T16:10:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/165750\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T16:10:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T16:10:44","slug":"what-will-happen-to-the-st-petersburg-office-destroyed-by-hurricane-milton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/165750\/","title":{"rendered":"What will happen to the St. Petersburg office destroyed by Hurricane Milton?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the heart of downtown St. Petersburg, a gleaming new luxury condo casts its shadow onto the crumbling remains of what was once an office building. The scene is a reminder of the historic 2024 hurricane season, which caused the most destruction our region has seen<\/a> in a century.<\/p>\n

Fierce wind gusts from Hurricane Milton sent a crane atop the Residences at 400 Central condo hurtling into the office tower<\/a> at 490 First Ave. S, leaving behind a gaping hole in the top three floors.<\/p>\n

With the fate of the office still up in the air, at least one prospective buyer has emerged: John Catsimitidis, the developer behind 400 Central.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, the Red Apple Group CEO expressed interest in purchasing the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always offered to buy it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll write a check, we don\u2019t have to borrow money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Catsimitidis did not disclose details about his supposed offer or what he\u2019d like to do with the property.<\/p>\n

The current owner is Atlanta-based Mason Capital Partners. The managing partner, Robert B. Mason, did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did the buildings\u2019s property manager, Dallas-based Lincoln Property Company.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg City Development Administrator James Corbett said he heard that the owner does not plan to repair the structure and is currently soliciting demolition firms.<\/p>\n

The city typically requires property owners to get a site plan approved before they can demolish a building downtown. Exceptions can be made if a building is in disrepair or is condemned, Corbett said.<\/p>\n

Still, no site plans have been submitted and no demolition permits have been filed.<\/p>\n

A couple of days after Hurricane Milton, code enforcement deemed the building \u201cunfit and unsafe.\u201d Since then, the building\u2019s owner was cited three times for junk, trash, debris and outdoor storage on the property. It was fined $700.<\/p>\n

The building once housed companies including the Tampa Bay Times \u2014 which has since moved to the Poynter Institute at 801 3rd Street S. \u2014 and the Johnson Pope law firm \u2014 which has a new office in the First Central Tower at 360 Central Avenue.<\/p>\n

Chairman and CEO of Times Publishing Company, Conan Gallaty said the Times never received a formal notice from the landlord that the building would not be restored. He said the Times brokered an agreement to end its lease, but did not disclose details about the terms.<\/p>\n

Johnson Pope sued the building\u2019s owner<\/a> to try and get out of its lease last January. That case was voluntarily dismissed a few months later.<\/p>\n

Another legal battle over damages to the office tower is currently brewing in Pinellas County Circuit Court.<\/p>\n

A group of insurance companies that paid out a collective $10.5 million in claims on 490 First Ave S. are suing several companies behind 400 Central including developer Red Apple, general contractor Suffolk Construction Co. and crane operator Liberty Equipment LLC.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims these companies did not take proper precautions to prevent the crane accident and therefore, they should pay for any damages not covered by insurance policies that the building\u2019s owner and at least one tenant had on the office tower.<\/p>\n

When asked about the lawsuit, Catsimatidis said he believed his company was not involved.<\/p>\n

Red Apple filed an answer to the complaint in January, claiming it had no responsibility to pay for damages and that certain contractors should shoulder that burden.<\/p>\n

Later that month, the plaintiffs moved to recategorize the case as a \u201ccomplex action,\u201d which would make it easier to coordinate different lawsuits related to the crane accident should more former tenants choose to file suit. New defendants could also be added to the case, including subcontractors who worked on 400 Central.<\/p>\n

When asked if the Times plans to sue, Gallaty said the company is closely monitoring the case and weighing its options.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like any other tenant, we were highly disrupted,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was a very difficult process. I hope justice is done for anyone that was affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Colleen Wright contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the heart of downtown St. Petersburg, a gleaming new luxury condo casts its shadow onto the crumbling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[78919,17222,1802,17365,51381,78918,202,204,203,199,201,200,19880],"class_list":{"0":"post-165750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-conan-gallaty","9":"tag-downtown-st-petersburg","10":"tag-hurricane-milton","11":"tag-james-corbett","12":"tag-luxury-condo","13":"tag-office-tower","14":"tag-st-pete","15":"tag-st-pete-headlines","16":"tag-st-pete-news","17":"tag-st-petersburg","18":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","19":"tag-st-petersburg-news","20":"tag-tampa-bay-times"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}