The Union Trust Bank building dates back to 1926, the height of St. Petersburg’s first big real estate boom. M. Leo Elliot, a Tampa architect whose credits included the old Tampa City Hall, Centro Asturiano and the Italian and Cuban clubs of Ybor City, designed the building with Beaux Arts elements including a “garland” around the arched main entrance. It became the largest state-chartered bank in Florida. Almost every loan, land sale, home mortgage or savings account started at the stately Union Trust building. Customers wore suits or high heels and pearls to conduct business amid its cherry paneling and ornate decor. Tellers worked behind brass cages, while executives sat in offices above with small interior windows from which to monitor the comings and goings of people and money below in the crowded lobby. A marble staircase led to the huge vault in the basement with almost 20 rooms for private deposits or withdrawals from safe deposit boxes.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, residents joked about taking shelter in the vault in case of an attack. The City Council approved a historic designation for the building in 2004 and began marketing the block for redevelopment as a way to connect downtown with the Edge and Grand Central Districts. “This is a great example of honoring our past and pursuing the future. We want to preserve what we can whenever we can,” Kriseman said in a statement. “A missing tooth in the city’s smile,” is how Mayor Rick Kriseman described the long-empty stretch of Central.