The Cade Nears Top-Off on Mirror Lake as Boutique Condo Bucks Downtown St. Pete Slowdown

While bigger towers in downtown St. Petersburg wait on financing, a 15-unit condo on Mirror Lake is closing in on its roof.

Backstreets Capital, the Conroy and Sher family office, has completed the sixth-floor slab at The Cade, its seven-story building at 749 Burlington Avenue North, and crews are now working on the top floor. President Will Conroy expects the structure to top out in the next few weeks. Construction started in April, and residents are scheduled to move in during early 2028. According to Conroy, it is currently the only condo project downtown with a construction crane in the air.

How the deal got built

Conroy credits a deliberately small footprint. A seven-story building costs less and goes up faster than a 30- or 40-story tower, and more general contractors can bid on it. The company already controlled the land, had permits in hand and had buyers signed before it started, and it locked in a lump-sum contract with its builder once bidding wrapped. ServisFirst Bank supplied a conventional construction loan, with Backstreets and a small circle of friends-and-family investors covering the rest of the capital stack. Conroy did not share the total development budget.

He estimates the cost of delivering a condo unit has roughly doubled since the firm built The Salvador downtown about ten years ago, and he expects landowners still pricing sites at 2021 to 2023 levels to reset over the next six months. Backstreets has a couple of additional St. Petersburg sites under contract that it has not named.

Sales

About 40% of the 15 residences were under contract when construction began in April, and that share has held roughly steady, with some prospects waiting for the winter season. Remaining homes are being offered at around $900 per square foot. At launch, the developer listed residences from about $1.9 million.

The building

All 15 homes are three- or four-bedroom layouts of more than 2,100 square feet, with three-bedroom plans of about 2,169 to 2,302 square feet and 3,420-square-foot four-bedroom penthouses on the top two levels. Each has a private balcony or terrace. PLACE Architecture designed the building, its fourth project with Backstreets after The Salvador, The Nolen and Clemmons Court, and Stephanie Smart of s.p.a.c.e. leads interiors. GSA Contractors is the general contractor, with Valin Construction managing the project. The Wittner Wollman Group handles sales from a gallery at 600 First Avenue North.

The design takes cues from the neighboring Cade Allen House at 250 Mirror Lake Drive, a roughly 90-year-old home Backstreets restored and has listed for $3.5 million. Stone salvaged from that house is being used at the new building's front entry. Amenities include a pool deck with covered seating, a fitness center, a resident lounge with a catering kitchen and workspaces, assigned storage on each residential floor and in the secured garage, and EV-ready parking.