{"id":399469,"date":"2026-09-14T14:06:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/399469\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T14:06:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:06:34","slug":"happy-100th-gas-station-turned-bagel-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/399469\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy 100th, gas station-turned-bagel shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Pete\u2019s Bagels co-founders Steven Peterman and Erica Gonzalez, repurposing a former Standard Oil station in south St. Petersburg was not just a good business opportunity. It was a way to reflect on the city\u2019s legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company will officially celebrate the structure\u2019s 100th anniversary Sunday, at 2439 4th Street S., from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very historic, once-in-a-lifetime experience to be able to be stewards of a building that is as old as this one,\u201d Gonzalez explained. \u201cWe have a lot of people who love Pete\u2019s, but may have never actually gone to this location before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prior to becoming a Pete\u2019s Bagels drive-thru shop, the asset was home to one of the first gas stations<\/a> in St. Petersburg. It opened in 1926 and remained in business until 1962.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She added that it required \u201ca lot of money, passion and perseverance\u201d to preserve the structure. The Pete\u2019s Bagels team began operations in the summer of 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Co-founders Steven Peterman (left) and Erica Gonzalez opened the first Pete\u2019s Bagels in 2019.<\/p>\n

Former St. Petersburg City Council member and real estate developer Robert Blackmon was behind the project. <\/a>He purchased the site, which is located in the Harbordale neighborhood, in 2019 and began working on rehabilitation efforts. The cost was in a high six figure range.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May, the project was honored by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation<\/a> during the organization\u2019s Preserve Florida 2026 conference in St. Petersburg.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great example of what preservation can mean to a community,\u201d Blackmon told the Catalyst. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have preservation, you could be looking at Anytown U.S.A. The buildings tell the history of our community. I\u2019m glad that we were able to help out just a little bit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the veteran politician, the investment made sense. The deteriorated structure had been vacant for some time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI bought the building because I thought it was artificially deflating the moral and basically the values of that neighborhood,\u201d he explained. \u201cWhen I found out what it was, I thought it needed to be brought back to something that looked period appropriate. We always thought that this could be a cool commercial piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Robert Blackmon<\/p>\n

After meeting the team at Pete\u2019s Bagels, Blackmon recognized an opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very history-focused,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir whole vibe is kind of \u2018hey, let\u2019s try and preserve the culture of old St. Pete,\u2019 even though a lot of their customers might be new to town.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pete\u2019s Bagels had been interested in a drive-thru location for some time, Gonzalez added. The company operates a flagship shop in the Grand Central District as well as other establishments in Ybor City and Tarpon Springs. Additionally, the team oversees a sister concept, Seymour\u2019s, at the Snell Arcade in St. Petersburg.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think being able to serve that part of St. Petersburg is also why it\u2019s special to us,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a completely different area.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sunday celebration will feature a mini market with local artists and vendors. Additionally, there will be a kid\u2019s area with different activities. Preserve the \u2018Burg executive director Manny Leto will also give a presentation and discuss the restoration efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think any time we can find a way to reuse our historic structures, or frankly older buildings, I think that\u2019s a win for the city,\u201d Leto said. \u201cI think it adds to the character of the city. There\u2019s also a sustainability aspect to it. The material would end up in a landfill when we demolish these buildings. But instead, we are breathing new life into them and they can continue for another 100 years in use and service.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pete\u2019s Bagels website\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Pete\u2019s Bagels co-founders Steven Peterman and Erica Gonzalez, repurposing a former Standard Oil station in south St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-399469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399469","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=399469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}