Commercial real estate investor finds niche in area retail centers

Don't tell Lita Sciturro-Smith retail real estate is dying. 

The investor, whose family has been in commercial real estate since the 1970s, has been patiently, and prudently, buying a series of income-producing retail-focused properties in the Sarasota-Manatee-Charlotte region for close to a decade. Her attitude toward the bogeyman of brick-and-mortar — e-commerce — is to build up a portfolio of tenants in service industries, including restaurants, gyms, hair salons and nail salons. “People always need services,” she says.