A South Carolina-based developer has pitched a scaled-down 16-story mixed-use tower for a corner lot near USF St. Petersburg, swapping out a taller design that city leaders unanimously approved just last year. The proposal from The Beach Company would rise 195 feet at 446 4th Street South, replacing a commercial building that once housed a kidney dialysis center, and cut the previously approved unit count by roughly 22 percent while expanding ground-floor retail space.
The St. Petersburg Development Review Commission is scheduled to formally evaluate the updated proposal at a public hearing on September 2, according to Florida YIMBY. The hearing will determine whether the revised 16-story design receives city approval, marking a fresh review of a site that has already changed developers and design teams once since early last year.
Back in February 2025, the St. Petersburg City Council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, unanimously approved a $67 million, 21-story tower for the same 0.7-acre parcel, led by St. Petersburg-based Stadler Development. That original plan called for 213 apartments and 2,250 square feet of ground-floor retail, reaching the district’s maximum allowable floor area ratio of 7.0 under the property’s Downtown Center-2 zoning, which otherwise permits a base FAR of 3.0, per St. Pete Rising’s reporting on the zoning framework.
New Architect, Shorter Building
The Beach Company’s revised proposal uses an FAR of 6.0, still well above the base allowance but below the previously approved maximum, according to the same outlet’s coverage of the technical zoning details. Design duties have shifted from Tampa-based Baker Barrios Architects, who planned Stadler’s 245-foot tower, to Charlotte, North Carolina-based Housing Studio, which is now the architect for the proposed building. The new 195-foot design draws from Art Moderne and historic warehouse architecture, a shift the outlet’s report frames as trimming 50 feet off the building’s height while adopting older architectural cues…