Kitson & Partners buy Bay Pines Mobile Home Park site

BUYER: Kitson & Partners, Palm Beach Gardens

SELLER: Bay Pines LP

PROPERTY: 10005 Bay Pines Blvd., Seminole

PRICE: $7.65 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $38.5 million, May 2006

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Kitson & Partners purchased 60 acres in Pinellas County for $7.65 million.

The site, the former Bay Pines Mobile Home Park, was entitled for 1,119 condominium, apartments or townhome units in 2007. However, Kitson & Partners now says it plans to develop a large mixed-use project on the site. The developer says the site is conducive for a mix of services, including a hotel, retail space, apartments and townhomes.

Kitson & Partners officials say they see strong potential in the market, even though Pinellas County is one of the Gulf Coast's most developed and populous counties.

“As the only large-scale redevelopment opportunity in southern Pinellas County, Bay Pines is a very attractive site for new residential development,” Andrew Carmody, senior vice president for Kitson & Partners, says in a press release. “You're not going to find another large-scale development property to rival Bay Pines' proximity to existing jobs, as well as sought-after amenities like the Pinellas Trail and Madeira Beach.”

The property is across the street from Bay Pines VA Medical Center, a 297-acre medical complex.

The former landowner, Bay Pines LP, purchased the mobile home park in May 2006, closed it and cleared the land for a development that never happened.

Founded in 1992, Kitson & Partners currently owns 20,000 residential units, 6.2 million square feet of commercial entitlements and 1.6 million square feet of existing retail shopping centers in Florida.