Three Lucas Brothers and J.Q. Brantley established the Lucas Brothers & Co. in 1895 as wholesale grocery and commission merchants. Their first location was on the Hillsborough River waterfront close to the Lafayette St (now Kennedy Blvd) bridge. Large schooners at their wharf would load goods for distribution along the west coast of Florida. They constructed this building in 1907, shipping and receiving goods by rail, as shown with the car on the railroad spur at their loading dock in the photo.

The company appears to have reached insolvency in the late 1920s as economic strife took over the nation. The building wound up in the possession of the Federal Reserve Bank, which sold it to the Pittsburgh Paint and Glass Co. in 1936. The property changed hands several times. In 1976, architect Dean Rowe restored it to its original red brick and remodeled it into a modern office building with restaurant space on the first floor. 

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