Entire WPB apartment building to be picked up and moved to neighborhood

Hey! What's that rolling down Quadrille Boulevard? It's a bird! It's a plane! No wait! It's a ... apartment building?!?!

That's right, it's an entire apartment building. The old Edgewater apartments located at 316 Gardenia Street won't be located at 316 Gardenia Street much longer if a city plan works out.

The city's CRA is working on picking up the entire building and moving it to 801 Fourth Street to be part of a north end neighborhood Bed & Breakfast hotel. The new B&B would be part of a plan to revive the northwest neighborhoods by creating an African-American tourism destination.

The B&B will be part of the old Alice Moore property, and will be a large piece of an overall plan that also includes the renovation of the Sunset Lounge.

The property owner is picking up the cost of moving the building. The CRA would then put up about $1 million dollars to gut and renovate the building.

The city calls it a win-win. An old, history-filled building is saved. The CRA is able to create a viable tourist destination in a neighborhood needing an economic revival, and a new B&B is born, creating local jobs.