Former Playhouse Theater Site Eyed For Affordable Housing Project: Report

The proposed development would include 150 affordable units and ground-floor commercial space, a report said.

By Tiffany Razzano, Patch Staff

May 6, 2026 4:43 pm EDT

A 12-story, 150-unit affordable housing tower has been proposed for the former Playhouse Theater property, which is just over a century old, in St. Petersburg’s Grand Central District, a new report said. (Courtesy of Google Maps)

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A 12-story, 150-unit affordable housing tower has been proposed for the former Playhouse Theater property, which is just over a century old, in St. Petersburg’s Grand Central District, according to St. Pete Rising.

Tampa-based Blue Sky Communities has the 0.61-acre site at 1850 Central Ave. and 1833 1st Ave. South, next to the Interstate 275 overpass, under contract for $6.25 million, with the deal expected to close in March 2027, the report said.

Plans call for a project tentatively named JR Tower with 3,000 square feet of commercial space.

“Getting affordable and workforce housing in downtown St. Pete is becoming increasingly difficult so this is an opportunity that doesn’t present itself often,” Blue Sky’s vice president and CFO Scott Macdonald told St. Pete Rising, adding, “I hope it will alleviate a lot of the challenges this area is seeing for staffing businesses.”

Blue Sky has developed other affordable housing projects in the city, including at Skyway Lofts in the Skyway Marina District.

Read the full story from St. Pete Rising here.
The nearly 15,000-square-foot theater first opened on Aug. 8, 1925, as the Patio Theater, a moviehouse where a seven-piece orchestra provided music for silent films, according to a 2021 profile on the property by St. Pete Catalyst.

The venue was later updated with new technology in the mid-1930s as sound was introduced to film.

In the late 1960s, the theater became known for showing adult films, before it was bought by a youth minister who turned the space into a teen nightclub called Papa’s Dream, the St. Pete Catalyst said.

During the 1980s, the building was home to several dinner theaters, followed by Extra Inning Ballpark Cafe and a hip-hop-focused martini bar called Concert Central, the profile said.

After this, the building sat empty for years.

It was purchased by an investment company, the Nahakama Group, in 2016, who gave the facade an upgrade, including a black-and-white Marilyn Monroe mural painted during the 2018 SHINE Mural Festival, and put the property on the market.

Urologist Dr. Reid Graves and his colleague Dr. Nicholas Laryngakis bought both parcels currently being considered for the affordable housing development, as well as two vacant lots to the west, for $2.7 million in 2021, reports said.

For a time, Graves considered knocking the theater down and building an office on the site, St. Pete Catalyst said in a separate article.

While demolition and building permits were submitted to the city, the project never transpired, reports said.

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