![\"Kaylie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/_K9A1702_t850.jpg\" "\\"Kaylie")
<\/p>\nFor decades now, anyone driving down St. Petersburg\u2019s Tyrone Boulevard has passed a familiar sight.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a standalone building at 3500 N. Tyrone Blvd. with plastic cows out front. Generations took pictures with those cows and visited the restaurant that called the space home, Harold Seltzer\u2019s Steakhouse.<\/p>\n
Today, Seltzer\u2019s is gone but the distinctive building \u2014 and one of the cows out front \u2014 remains on the busy commercial thoroughfare.<\/p>\n
The new occupant: a funeral company-owned event space named Traditions on Tyrone.<\/p>\n
Traditions is owned by Houston-based Dignity Memorial and aims at something different than the company\u2019s core business of funerals.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an events space, for, the company says, \u201ccelebrating all of life\u2019s occasions,\u201d with a focus on wedding receptions, bar or bat mitzvahs, proms, business events and all sorts of other parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t do body preparation here,\u201d says Chris Halsey, Tradition on Tyrone\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can do that, if a person wants to bring an urn to have a celebration, like any other centers or hotels. But people are starting to go to event centers or spaces like that versus coming into a funeral home that’s very traditional and stuffy and rows of chairs like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just a natural progression.\u201d<\/p>\n
(According to a 2025 report from the National Funeral Directors Association, 58.3% of people say they have attended a funeral at a non-traditional location.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like now,\u201d adds Traditions on Tyrone\u2019s events manager Victoria Colie, \u201cpeople want a party, they want to have fun, celebrate. They don’t want to stand over a table and cry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Major rebuild<\/p>\n
Dignity bought the former steakhouse property in 2024 for $3.9 million, shortly after Harold Seltzer\u2019s closed down.<\/p>\n
The closure came as the chain\u2019s founder and namesake stepped away from the business that, despite several changes over the decades, bore his family\u2019s name and traced its roots to a butcher shop in Montreal.<\/p>\n
Halsey says the purchase closed about a month before Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit Florida, causing extensive damage along the Gulf coast.<\/p>\n
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The building suffered wind and roof damage during Milton and the huge demand for permits that followed as residents looked to rebuild delayed the company\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost a little time,\u201d Halsey says.<\/p>\n
Once able to work on the building, the company undertook a major renovation of the space. The dark of a classic steakhouse has been replaced with a brighter. more welcoming interior.<\/p>\n
To accomplish that, the company added windows throughout the building to bring in natural light and added light-colored tile flooring.<\/p>\n
There are now neutral colors that work with events like wedding receptions, bridal showers and anniversaries, allowing for flexible tablecloth changes without clashing. (Colie has a warehouse filled with materials available to help customize events.)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kaylie Lindsey, a crematory operator for Dignity Memorial and St. Petersburg artist, reimagines a cow outside the company’s new events center, Traditions on Tyrone.<\/p>\n
Photo by Mark Wemple<\/p>\n
Other work included the reconfiguration of the space, including adding walls, to create five different event spaces. In all, if someone rents the entire space it can hold 300 people \u2014 350 if an outdoor bar is included.<\/p>\n
And in nod to Seltzer\u2019s, Traditions on Tyrone kept the restaurant\u2019s original bar. While the granite countertops were upgraded and the booths redone, original elements, ike the Tiffany lamps, remain.<\/p>\n
Growth plans<\/p>\n
In all, Dignity spent almost $2 million on the project, some of it due to the damage from Milton and upgrades needed to the fire system, a company spokesperson says.<\/p>\n
The new Traditions on Tyrone held a soft opening June 11 with about 200 attendees and four events are already scheduled.<\/p>\n
Halsey says the sales team is meeting with groups, including a local school, and individuals about holding events at the center. There are also plans to host a monthly dinner, as Seltzer\u2019s once did.<\/p>\n
The goal, says the spokesperson, is to host 10 events per month with $150,000 in revenue per month in the first year, or $1.8 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dignity Memorial is the flagship brand of SCI Corp. SCI, which also owns the cremation service company Neptune Society, operates more than 1,487 funeral service locations and 503 cemeteries in 44 states and eight Canadian provinces. According to its first quarter earnings report released in April, revenue grew 2% year over year, to $1.09 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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As for repeating the Traditions on Tyrone model in other places, the spokesperson says the company has 10 special event centers in Florida “and are continually evaluating opportunities to expand our presence.”<\/p>\n
But whether Dignity does or doesn\u2019t add more event spaces, Colie says given the change in people\u2019s expectations, the work done at the events space is not so dissimilar from the work done at more traditional facilities.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about the celebration, after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like when you talk to people that don’t know anything about it, when you explain it as a celebration of life, If it’s someone that’s passed or someone that’s wanting to plan a party for a 16th birthday, it’s very similar,” she says. “They’re trying to celebrate somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
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