Housing authority buys Gandy land for office

BUYER: St. Petersburg Housing Authority, St. Petersburg

SELLER: Carolina First Bank

PROPERTY: northeast corner of Gandy Boulevard and Interstate 275, St. Petersburg

PRICE: $1 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $266,000, June 2000

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP, Tampa

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The St. Petersburg Housing Authority purchased 5.36 acres of industrial land in Gateway Business Park for $1 million.

The price equated to $186,567 per acre.

The housing authority plans to develop a 13,000-square-foot office building on the property to serve as its main office. The agency currently occupies less than 10,000 square feet of space on the first floor of the Rogall building in the Graham-Rogall public housing complex at 300 10th St. S., St. Petersburg.

The authority needs to leave that space, however, because it sold parts of the building to a developer who plans to turn it into apartments for first responders, teachers and students.

The authority will put its central office project out for bid. The $1.3 million project is scheduled to be completed by fall 2011.