Last November the city of St. Petersburg (finally) rolled out its new Zoning Ordinances completely redefining almost every zoning designation. City officials told me a core objective of this new plan was to increase the amount of mixed use property in the city, increasing the residential density near downtown.

The vision is one of 1920’s style architecture, offices and retail shops along the street level with apartments and condos on the upper floors. The result is less traffic, better utilization of parking (residential by night and commercial by day) and a better sense of community.

Personally I applaud this and love the idea of a nice downtown flat with a short stairway descent to my office. Along with this would come stores and services in walking distance and much less need to get in the car for the occasional errand. Not to mention the sounds and sights of a “real” city.

A 1500 SF apartment rents for about $1000 - $1500 per month.

A 1500 SF office suite rents for about $2300 / month (assuming $15/SF + $4/CAM = $19/SF/YR) or more and generally comes with a multi-year lease with built in rent escalations of 3% to 5% per year.

The economic incentive is to build office / retail as opposed to mixed use. Or buy a mixed use building and convert it to all office, thereby increasing the income level of the property and its base value.

While I applaud the city’s efforts, their failure to align it with the economic realities of the day make it very unlikely we will see quality mixed use communities in the near future.