For nearly six decades, a building tucked away in northeast St. Petersburg served as the headquarters of one of Tampa Bay’s best-known television stations. Its studios produced local programming, its equipment kept broadcasts running and its offices housed the people who put Channel 44 on the air.
Now the building is empty, and the people who bought it weren’t particularly interested in owning a television studio.
The former WTOG-TV headquarters at 365 105th Terrace NE is on the market for $1.4 million, offering more than 21,000 square feet of studios, offices and technical facilities that once supported a major independent broadcasting operation.
Mike Schultz, a commercial real estate broker with Insta Real Estate Solutions, said the property’s sale last year grew out of an arrangement with Rec Deck, a neighboring recreational sports facility associated with Tampa Bay Club Sport.
The business had been renting parking spaces from WTOG to accommodate its customers. When the television station decided to sell, the parking and studio building were offered together.
“They didn’t intend to buy the TV station,” Schultz said. “It was a package deal. You have to buy it all.”
WTOG continued occupying the property under a leaseback arrangement until the end of May, Schultz said. The building has been vacant since.
WTOG remains on the air as Tampa Bay 44, an independent television station owned by Paramount. Viewers can still receive Channel 44 through an antenna or participating cable providers, although the station no longer operates from its longtime St. Petersburg headquarters. Its programming now consists primarily of syndicated shows and regional sports.
Finding another business capable of using the space has been more complicated than putting it on the market.
Built in 1965, the two-story structure was expanded repeatedly to accommodate the changing needs of a television station. Behind its stucco exterior is a steel structure filled with specialized rooms and equipment.
“The building was definitely built for that company,” Schultz said. “It’s an add-on to an add-on to an add-on.”
Prospective buyers have considered opening up portions of the interior for warehouse space, commercial offices or other uses. But reconfiguring a building assembled over several decades could require considerable investment.
The building’s unusual layout has already complicated at least one potential sale.
Schultz said an Orlando-area company interested in using the property for media production entered into a contract but backed out after examining the work involved. Other developers and investors have expressed interest, with renovation costs remaining a central concern.
Even so, the property contains features that would be expensive to reproduce.
There are soundproof editing rooms, former control areas and cyclorama walls used to create seamless backgrounds for photography and television production. Electrical equipment is spread throughout the building, supported by large battery backup systems and a generator intended to keep operations running during an outage.
Schultz has spoken with prospective users about converting the property into a facility for video production, podcasts and photography. One idea involved renting studios to content creators and other artists.
There is also the possibility that the building’s television history will have little to do with its future.
“Realistically, it needs someone with a lot of experience that knows how to take on a big rehab,” Schultz said.
For generations of Tampa Bay viewers, WTOG was part of everyday life.
The station began broadcasting in November 1968 as an independent outlet owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. Channel 44 aired movies, cartoons, syndicated shows and locally produced programming before eventually joining the Fox, UPN and CW networks.
Among its best-known personalities was Dr. Paul Bearer, the horror movie host portrayed by Dick Bennick on Creature Feature. From 1973 until 1995, Bearer entertained viewers with old monster movies, elaborate makeup and a steady supply of corny macabre jokes.
Schultz said the building still shows signs of its broadcasting past, although he could not say when WTOG stopped producing programs inside its studios.
The station’s former control center occupied part of the second floor. Other rooms had been built or modified over the years for editing and technical work. When WTOG left, it removed equipment associated with its satellite operations, leaving behind a facility designed around a business that no longer needed it.
Schultz said WTOG once occupied additional property across the street, where Rec Deck now operates. As the television industry changed, the station gradually reduced its physical footprint.
Today, potential buyers are trying to determine how much of that old infrastructure can be put to work.
The property has been marketed for about two months. Its asking price works out to approximately $66 per square foot, which Schultz believes leaves room for renovations compared with the cost of constructing a comparable building from scratch.
He expects the eventual buyer will most likely be a local business looking for a large headquarters or a specialized commercial space.
Schultz said he’s still working with interested parties and contractors to determine what renovations would cost.
“There’s a ton of opportunity in there,” he said. “You just have to have somebody with the right end game.”
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