St. Petersburg building hit by crane housed newspapers for a century

ST. PETERSBURG — The St. Petersburg office building into which Hurricane Milton tossed a construction crane this week, damaging several floors, has for more than a century served as the home base of local newspapers.

The building at 490 First Ave. S. is the headquarters of the Times Publishing Company, which produces the Tampa Bay Times, though the company does not own the property. It also houses a large law firm, Johnson Pope, whose name adorns the building, and other businesses.

The crane collapsed amid Hurricane Milton’s extreme winds. It fell from a construction site across the street, where a 46-story condominium tower known as the Residences at 400 Central is rising.

It crashed onto part of the eight-story building’s northeast corner, smashing through several of the upper floors. The building was closed to tenants ahead of Hurricane Milton’s arrival and no one was inside when the crane struck.

Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference outside the damaged building Friday morning to discuss storm recovery efforts. The crumpled metal crane still lay across First Avenue South as DeSantis and other public officials spoke.

Afterward, the governor criticized the condo project’s developer, saying they should have used “common sense” and taken down heavy equipment before the storm arrived.

The extent of the damage was not completely clear Friday as the building remained closed. Lincoln Property Co., the Dallas firm that owns the building, did not respond Friday to messages for comment.

St. Petersburg Fire Rescue shared a social media video Friday of emergency personnel inspecting damage inside the building. The brief clip showed firefighters walking between a path through several cube-style work stations, where computers sat on desks and office chairs stood on water-soaked floors. At one corner, insulation and ventilation materials hung in a crumpled pile, with the downtown St. Petersburg skyline visible through a gaping hole.

The Times newsroom occupies space on the building’s fourth floor along with the Times Publishing Company’s other publications, Florida Trend and Tampa Bay Newspapers.

Johnson Pope occupies the seventh floor, where some of the damage occurred. The firm said in a statement Friday that none of its employees were there when the collision occurred, and that they had little other information.

The building’s other major tenants include the financial publication The Penny Hoarder, defense contractor L3Harris and Bank OZK. Karma Juice Bar and Eatery operates on the first floor, off the main lobby, where a window was shattered.

The property includes almost 240,000 square feet. It is a fusion of three different buildings that were merged together over the last century.

The Times Publishing Company first moved to the location in 1921, when a small, three-story building stood at the corner of First Avenue South and Fifth Street. Three years later, the company built on the north side of the block what would become the first of the three merged buildings. This is the portion of the building that was damaged by the crane.

Another portion of the building went up in the 1960s. The third section, which includes the building’s main lobby and a towering atrium, was built in 1988.

The Evening Independent, a St. Petersburg newspaper that ceased publication in 1986, also once operated there.

The Times sold the building in 2016 for $19 million to the Tampa-based Convergent Capital Partners and Denholtz Associates. The building underwent renovations and sold again two years later to Lincoln Property Co. for $39.4 million.

Conan Gallaty, the CEO of Times Publishing Co., said Friday morning that no one had been allowed inside the building, but the company has been trying to do assessments of the contents within and what they can salvage.

Gallaty said an air chiller in the building was damaged by the crane, causing a spill of thousands of gallons of cold water. He said all three parts of the building were damaged not only by the crane, but from the water, and that he did not know when a walk-through would take place.

Gallaty said the Times’ lease, which occupies the fourth floor, runs through 2031, and they are evaluating options for the near and long term. They do have insurance on the property, and the company is reviewing its legal options.

Times Staff Writer Colleen Wright contributed to this report.

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