Kolter Urban Files for Twin 44-Story Condo Towers on St. Pete's Hilton Bayfront Site

Kolter Urban wants to put two of the tallest towers in St. Petersburg on the site of the downtown Hilton.

The Delray Beach-based developer has submitted a site plan application to the city for a pair of 44-story condominium towers at 333 1st Street South, home to the 15-story Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront since 1972. As proposed, the towers would rise up to 509 feet and hold 325 condo residences, more units than any completed condominium building in the city. The project's estimated cost runs from $300 million to $325 million.

The program

The application lists about 1.32 million square feet of building area on a site of roughly 3 acres at the northeast corner of 2nd Street South and 4th Avenue South, nearly four times the size of the existing 344,000-square-foot hotel. Kolter is seeking a 7.0 floor-area ratio, which its application says is already permitted under the property's land use and zoning designations.

One tower would face 1st Street South and the other the corner of 2nd Street South and 4th Avenue South. Plans include 17,988 square feet of street-level commercial space and a screened 519-space parking garage, with another 207 spaces in the neighboring Saltaire garage set aside for residents, for 726 spaces in all. Vehicle and pedestrian access would come from 1st Street South, 2nd Street South and 4th Avenue South. 10 Design is the architect.

At 509 feet, the pair would tie as the city's third-tallest buildings, behind the 539-foot Waldorf Astoria Residences planned at 150 2nd Avenue South and the 515-foot Residences at 400 Central, and ahead of Kolter's own 450-foot Art House and ONE St. Petersburg.

A brand still to come

The filing does not name the project or a hospitality partner. Kolter is currently building the 20-story, 78-residence Ritz-Carlton Residences Sarasota Bay, and market watchers expect a branded program here as well, though the developer has not announced one.

How it got here

Kolter bought the Hilton Bayfront for $96 million in March after completing the 35-story, 192-unit Saltaire on the hotel's former surface parking lot in 2023. The developer will keep operating the hotel until construction begins. City Council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, must still find the project consistent with the Intown Redevelopment Plan, and no hearing date, construction timeline or pricing has been announced.

The towers would extend a downtown St. Pete portfolio that already includes ONE St. Petersburg (2019, 253 condos plus a Hyatt Place hotel), Saltaire and Art House (244 condos), along with an approved 21-story, 62-unit tower at the former Fit2Run site and the planned 129-condo Water Club St. Pete Beach.