Former Anheuser-Busch president’s Tampa Bay estate demolished

The last call is over for a Tampa Bay home that was once owned by the late Anheuser-Busch heir August A. Busch Jr. 

Busch’s former winter residence at 2707 Pass-a-Grille Way in St. Pete Beach has been demolished, the Tampa Bay Times reported. 

The owner, a company linked to Tampa angel investor Steve MacDonald of MacDonald Ventures, sought a demolition permit in January, and St. Pete Beach granted it last month.

The owner plans to build a single 23,000-square-foot residence at an estimated cost of $6 million, the outlet said, citing property records.

The property spans nearly a city block along the Intracoastal Waterway. MacDonald’s entity bought it in 2020, and the purchase price wasn’t disclosed. It had sold for over $5 million in 2017.

Busch, who was known as Gussie, assembled the property, which was three lots lots, for his winter home, in the 1950s. He hosted numerous celebrities there, including Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Frank Sinatra and Arnold Palmer, as well as former presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George H.W. Bush.

Busch spent a lot of time at the compound because it was near the St. Louis Cardinals’ spring training camp, in downtown St. Petersburg, when Busch owned the team. It was also near a Busch brewery and a public park that eventually became Busch Gardens Tampa.

After Busch died at age 90 in 1989, the estate changed hands several times, ultimately becoming the Birds of Paradise Boutique Resort in 1997. 

The demolition and subsequent redevelopment mark the end of an era for a property steeped in the town’s history, leaving many curious about the future transformation of this iconic site on St. Pete Beach.

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