Despite high interest rates, a property insurance crisis, stagnant incomes, record high inflation and rapidly eroding coastlines, the area continues to attract new residents.
Over the past 12 months, the area witnessed historic mansions, notable celebrity homes and architectural gems hit the market for the first time, and of course, we also saw record sale prices.
What follows are Creative Loafing Tampa Bay's most popular Tampa Bay home stories from 2023.
Casa de Muchas Flores, St. Petersburg
Casa De Muchas Flores, or "House of Many Flowers," was built in 1924 by Henry H. Dupont, who built quite a few prominent buildings in Florida, but is probably best known for his famously pink Don CeSar hotel. The home hit the market last May with an asking price of $11.5 million, but the listing has since been removed.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister and wife Nikki DeBartolo put their sprawling waterfront mansion on the market last May and sold it in October. According to the initial listing, the three-story mansion comes with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms, as well as two kitchens, a wine cellar, an elevator, a gym, a dog park, a four-car garage, pool, media room, library, an "entertainment dock" and a "pristine yacht facility." The listing photos included a framed version of the "One Kiss Changed Everything" story, which was first published in the St. Petersburg Times in 2005, and documents the couple's courtship and eventual marriage. Notably, there was also a banner hanging in Chad's gym with the phrase "Be a bad ass with a good ass."
The "Holdout House" was built in 1963 and is literally the only single-family house still standing at the end of Clearwater Point, which was once dotted with beach homes but is now almost entirely engulfed by condos. The beach house overlooks a busy channel section of Clearwater Harbor and over the years has been known to locals by a few different names; "The Gray House," the "Holdout House," and "Fort Akert" after its original owners, Carl Wilkens and his wife Mary Ackert, and their long-fraught battle with relentless developers. The home hit the market last September and current has an asking price of $5,999,000.
After initially hitting the market last January with an asking price of $5,995,000, the waterfront home of Kirstie Alley was purchased for $5,220,000 back in August. The home, which is just down the street from former co-star and fellow Scientologist John Travolta's former house, was purchased by Alley in 2000 for $1.5 million from singer Lisa Marie Presley, who passed away earlier this year due to complications with weight-loss surgery.
One of Tampa's very first Bayshore Boulevard homes hit the market back in July. The house was built in 1912 for W.E. Dorchester and it was one of the first homes to be built in this area, which actually had a literal shoreline at the time. Dorchester was a New York-based dentist who came to Tampa in 1893 and started the "Dorchester Rent and Collections Agency," which grew into one of the largest residential rental companies in the early 1900s. In the early 1940s, the estate was used as a women's dormitory for the University of Tampa, and was later the site of the Tampa Women's Club. The home is now off market.
The home was completed in 1964 and was designed by Sanford M. Goldman, who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright for two years in the late-1950s at the Taliesin fellowship in Wisconsin. Goldman, who is now in his 80s, practiced architecture in Tampa Bay for over 50 years and was known for his use of glass walls and courtyards, as well his skill at "blurring the lines between exterior and interior." This home is no different. The 4,213-square-foot home comes with four bedrooms and five bathrooms and features imported Jerusalem stone floors, huge glass-partitioned walls, a pool, 200-feet of waterfront, and more. In 2018, Goldman received a proclamation for his accomplished career and contributions to mid-century modern architecture from St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman.
The Crescent House was built in the mid-1880s for Kansas hardware tycoon Edwin H. Knapp. It's believed that Knapp presided over the initial meeting that incorporated the city of Tarpon Springs, and that the meeting took place in his living room in 1887. Referred to as the "Crescent House" or the "Crescent Place" for it's curved front porch, the home is considered to be one of the oldest frame houses in Pinellas County. Over the years, the three-story home fell into disrepair until it was completely restored in 1978 by owner Donald Scholl, and since then has been a popular stop on quite a few historic home tours in Tarpon Springs. The home hit the market in October and is currently asking $1,799,000.
The ABBA House was built in 1982, and was designed in the Swedish Longhouse style, which means there's two identical wings with two bedrooms, two baths and shared rooms in the middle. Perfect for a band featuring two married couples. There's no hard evidence that the disco supergroup ever actually owned it, or even stayed there for that matter, but there are quite a few clues that suggest the rumors might actually be true. According to property records, the lot was initially purchased in 1982 by Andante Music, Ltd., which has ties to ABBA's former business manager John Spalding. Of course, "Andante, Andante" is also the name of a ABBA song on the 1981 album Super Trouper. The home is now off the market.
The former home of Tampa Bay's most famous ponytailed, late night pitchman hit the market last October. The home was built in 1984 and up until last year was owned by "America's Personal Trainer" Tony Little. Known for his catchphrase "You can do it!," and his trademark hair and baseball cap, Little is still a regular fixture on HSN, and over the years has filmed quite a few infomercials in this house, like this one for the "Tony Little Inversion Recliner." The 6,797-square-foot home sits on over 6.5 acres and comes with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. It also features three fireplaces, a game room, two urinals, a whole-home generator, a spring-fed pond stocked with fish, an air-conditioned warehouse, a pool and more. Historic Davis Islands mansion, Tampa
Back in 2021, Derek Jeter's former Tampa house broke local real estate records when it sold for a record $22.5 million. Last August, one of Davis Islands other massive estates got pretty darn close. After hitting the market back in February for $23.9 million, a 9,038-square-foot French Provincial-style mansion sold for $17.85 million. The big transaction comes out to $1,975 per square foot, which makes it the second-highest sale in Tampa real estate history, says Smith & Associates. The mansion was built in 1932 for Gulf Fertilizer founder Lem P. Woods and his wife at a cost of $12,000, according to property records. Notably, the home was built by the G.A. Hanson Company, which was behind quite a few local projects of this era, including the historic Hillsborough Masonic Lodge, which is listed on the City of Tampa's Historic Landmark Register.
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