Fifth Element

St. Petersburg's boom has created a developmental domino effect.

For starters, new commercial and residential towers — and rents, accordingly — have gone up within shouting distance of the city's low-rise, trendy EDGE District. The popular, near west-side neighborhoods of Grand Central and Kenwood, meanwhile, have seen more businesses open but little in the way of new residential development. The housing supply in these areas mostly consists of quaint, single-family bungalows and small apartment buildings.

Now Coral Gables-based property development company Altis Cardinal sees an opportunity in the area's looming housing shortage. It started to capitalize on that belief in 2014, by beginning to acquire what now totals a 10-acre parcel on Fifth Avenue North and 33rd Street North. The company bought one parcel in January 2014 for $2.4 million and a second parcel this past August for $3.1 million, property records show.