Good-bye Big Apple, hello Sunshine City.
Footwear and apparel retailer Foot Locker Inc. has signed a long-term lease for 110,998 square feet at 570 Carillon Parkway in St. Petersburg, Fla., which will be its new global headquarters. The Feil Organization is the building’s owner.
Foot Locker’s current headquarters is at 330 W. 34th St. in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The retailer first announced its plans to relocate its HQ to St. Petersburg in the third quarter of this past year.
570 Carillon is in Carillon Business Park, within the Gateway Business District, between St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport and the I-275 bridge over Old Tampa Bay. The five-story, 250,000-rentable-square-foot Class A office building features a café, a fitness center, 24/7 building access and high-speed cable and fiber services. It was completed in 1998, according to CommercialEdge.
The park’s amenities include walking trails and easy access to nearby restaurants, hotels, retail shops, banks and residential neighborhoods.
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Foot Locker was represented in the lease by Lee Winter and Caleb Lewis of JLL. The Feil Organization was represented in-house by Andrew Wiener and Barry Hanerfeld and Molly Molloy Catlett of CBRE.
In a company statement, Foot Locker President Frank Bracken connected the relocation to the company’s Lace Up Plan. This initiative aims to build on the chain’s position as a high-visibility multi-brand retailer and take advantage of factors as varied as the growth of the “sneaker culture” among teens and “mass casualization,” as the hybrid work model stabilizes.
Of historical note, Foot Locker traces its trajectory from its birth in 1974 as an outgrowth of the venerable F.W. Woolworth Co. to its current place in the $80 billion-plus sneaker market.
Not necessarily fun in the sun
The Tampa Bay office market has a hefty 20.0 percent overall vacancy, which at least is down by 120 basis points year-over-year, driven by a decrease in vacant sublease space, according to a fourth-quarter report from Cushman & Wakefield.
The report highlighted the Gateway submarket as a solid performer in rental rates, with a 5.6 percent year-over-year increase, to $26.76 per square foot.
The Tampa Bay development market seems to be characterized in recent months less by office projects and more by warehouse/distribution activity.
In November, for example, Rockpoint and Greystar partnered up to develop the three-building, 331,803-square-foot second phase of Gateway Logistics Center in St. Petersburg. The entire 622,200-square-foot 17.5-acre Gateway Logistics Center reportedly is the largest industrial development in Pinellas County in more than 20 years.
