The 900 Block of Central Avenue Is Coming Back Built for Daytime

In the summer of 2025 the EDGE District's 900 block of Central Avenue lost two of its longest-running tenants within a few weeks, as LocalShops1 tracked in its Central Avenue closures list. No Vacancy, the retro motel-themed bar at 937 Central, closed in July after six and a half years. Buya Ramen, two doors west at 911, closed in August after nine. Fifteen months later, nearly every storefront from 895 to 937 is either open or has a named tenant working toward an opening date.

The new tenants are tilting the block toward daytime. The bar at 937 is gone and a breakfast-and-lunch counter has replaced it. Most of the businesses lined up behind it are things you'd stop into at 10 a.m. or 2 p.m.: a bakery in an old bank, a pasta counter, a paint studio, a jewelry shop with engraving, and a pinball room that sells a day pass so you can come and go.

The bar at 937 is now a farmhouse kitchen

LocalShops1 reported that No Vacancy owner Stephen Schrutt signed off with "From the bottom of our hearts, Thank You, St. Pete. You stayed with us through it all." The space's next tenant took more than a year to rebuild it.

Casa Origen, a farm-to-table restaurant and cafe, soft-opened at 937 Central on Saturday, October 24. I Love the Burg's first look describes an interior that former regulars would barely recognize. The long bar has been removed, and the room is now three small nooks plus a fully rebuilt open kitchen. Outside, the patio leans into a rustic farmhouse look that the owners call "bringing the farmhouse to St. Pete."

The hours tell you what kind of block this is turning into. Casa Origen runs 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for breakfast and lunch only. The menu is organic coffee, smoothies, homemade gluten-free pastries and a short list of dishes, and the opening weekend was counter service. A full dinner menu is planned for early January. The corner of 937 used to do its business after dark. For the next couple of months, it closes before the evening crowd arrives.

Walking west from 937, address by address

The rest of the block reads the same way once you walk it storefront by storefront.

915 Central, The Lucky Flipper. Owner Matthew Scott is building a 1,600-square-foot pinball bar in the former Machine Shop Barber Company space, aiming for an early December opening. St. Pete Rising reports plans for 16 to 18 pinball machines, three to six classic arcade cabinets, and a bar pouring local and Florida-made beer. Admission is currently planned at $14 a day for unlimited play, and you can come and go all day. Scott wants a bright room in coral and teal under a roseate spoonbill logo, not a dark neon arcade. It's a bar, but it's priced and designed for an afternoon of drifting in and out.

911 Central, Shaka Shrimp Kitchen. A fast-casual seafood restaurant is headed for Buya Ramen's old space. St. Pete Rising reports it is targeting an opening before the end of 2026, depending on permits. Shaka's own site still lists the 911 address as "coming soon."

909 Central, Sunshine City Paint. The paint-and-sip studio soft-opened on July 11, 2026, according to LocalShops1, which makes it one of the first new tenants on the block.

907 Central, August Mae. According to LocalShops1's October 8 roundup, Cory Lawler is opening a jewelry and lifestyle shop in the 736-square-foot storefront between Fusillo Pasta and Sunshine City Paint, with demi-fine jewelry, permanent bracelets and in-house engraving. The target is the end of the year.

905 Central, Fusillo Pasta. St. Pete Rising described a made-daily pasta concept, ready in minutes, after a full interior renovation. Fusillo's website now says it is open at the 905 address.

895 Central, The Sourdough Co. The biggest move on the block is happening at its west end. The bakery is moving a few blocks from 1113 Central into 895 Central, the former Union Trust Bank, an almost 11,000-square-foot building from 1926. It has three floors, a mezzanine and a full basement, and it has sat empty since the bank closed in 1996. I Love the Burg reported that the original windows, the brick and the bank vault will be kept. St. Pete Rising adds plans to build out two existing kitchens and possibly use walnut, marble and gold finishes, with a target of early 2027 depending on permits and construction. The café at 1113 Central stays open every day in the meantime, so your usual loaf doesn't move until the vault building is ready.

That's a 1926 bank coming back to life as a bakery at one end of the block and a motel-themed bar turned into a farmhouse café at the other. A bakery, a pasta counter, a paint studio and a jewelry shop fill most of the storefronts in between.

The block's calendar between now and early 2027

Only some of these dates are firm. The rest are targets, and the table below keeps the two apart.

If every target holds, December is when the block feels different. The pinball bar, the shrimp counter and the jewelry shop could all open within a few weeks of each other, and Casa Origen's dinner service would follow in January. If permits slow things down, the Union Trust Bank building will likely be the last storefront to fill, after the rest of the block is already running.

The same turnover, a few blocks east

Central Avenue's 400 block is getting a homecoming of its own. Acropolis Greek Taverna, which closed at 515 Central in July 2023, is coming back at 475 Central in the two-story space Concrete Jungle used to occupy, across the street from the 400 Central tower. St. Pete Rising reports a 6,000-square-foot venue with the Greek restaurant upstairs and a separately named, speakeasy-style basement lounge. The lounge will have its own cocktail program, about 10 small plates and live music, and it puts the grand opening in mid-December. A day earlier, I Love the Burg said there was no public timeline yet. Treat mid-December as a target for now. Co-founder Sam Waez told St. Pete Rising that St. Pete is "my backyard. All my people are here, all my friends."

Acropolis's old address is quiet again. Thirsty First, which replaced it at 515 Central, had its final day on July 26, 2026, St. Pete Rising reported. Farther west, St. Pete Catalyst reported that The Neon Lunchbox at 1756 Central would close on August 29. LocalShops1 reports that Noble Tavern has added The Sterling at 1650 Central, a private event room for about 40 on the ground floor of the Tru by Hilton, next to Duckweed Urban Grocery. It takes bookings for showers, rehearsal dinners and meetings.

The avenue keeps trading tenants up and down its length. The 900 block is the one place where the new tenants have nearly filled the block, and they are betting on daytime traffic.

Rand Wilson Group follows Central Avenue a storefront at a time, because what opens on a block shapes how it feels to live a few streets away. If you're curious how the EDGE District's changes connect to downtown St. Pete homes and condos, Rand Wilson Group can walk you through it. Request a Free Market Consultation.