The Coronet 300 (formerly the Smith Empire Building) was constructed in the early 1920s, where it’s risen 11 stories over St. Petersburg for 100 years. Now, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) hopes to move forward with demolishing the building and replacing it with a boutique hotel.
The Coronet Hotel would measure 16 stories (172 feet), comprising 74 rooms. According to St. Pete Rising, they would start on the third floor and continue to the top. Floors three through seven would have eight; floors eight through fifteen would have four; the top floor would have just two. The ground floor would host the hotel’s lobby, and the second floor would have a mezzanine; there would also be a combined 4,000 square feet of retail on those floors. The Coronet Hotel would also have two nonconsecutive floors of amenities.
The Coronet 300 (pictured) would be demolished. Image from Google Earth
St. Petersburg-based Behar + Peteranecz is the architect. It intends to incorporate aspects of the original tower’s design into the redevelopment, such as a breeze block to promote ventilation. The project is anticipated to cost $20 million to complete.
The 16-story hotel comes as a result of the extensive hurricane damage that the Coronet 300 sustained from Hurricanes Helene and Milton in late 2024. Gianco Companies, the current owner of the hotel, purchased the tower in 2017. The Coronet Hotel would be located at 300 Central Avenue, Saint Petersburg, FL, 33701, in Pinellas County.
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Why reproduce the insensitive 1960s renovation, and instead undo a wrong by designing something more faithful to the 1920s building’s original appearance?