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Real Estate Briefs
Bradenton entrepreneur
redevelops Ninth Ave. warehouse
The renovation of historic Manatee Avenue in Bradenton is continuing. Harry Bakker, president and CEO of Bradenton's HJB Properties, plans to refurbish a former Scotty's lumberyard warehouse building at the southwest corner of Ninth Street and Manatee Avenue East.
Earlier this year, Bakker successfully retooled the 89-year-old former Manatee Paper building, at the northeast corner of the intersection, as an upscale office center. That building is now the headquarters of Bradenton-based Vanguard Advanced Pharmacy System, a local pharmaceutical company, along with other office tenants. Bakker plans to do the same thing with the warehouse building.
"At one time this was the prettiest building on the corner," Bakker says. "Now we are just trying to fit it into the antique district." He says the 35,000-square-foot building, which he calls the East West Business Center, will feature a mixture of office and retail users. Bakker plans to initially renovate about 20,000 square feet of space in the facility at a cost of about $1 million.
The general contractor for the project is Zirkelbach Construction Inc., the same contractor who worked on the Vanguard building.
Venice Little Theatre
relocates props department
The Venice Little Theatre is no longer little. The theater management purchased an 8,500-square-foot building at 221 Tamiami Trail in Venice, adjacent to the existing theater at 140 Tampa Avenue W., from John Holloway for $750,000.
Murray Chase, artistic managing director, says the theater had no choice but to buy the former ABC Liquor store for the parking spaces alone. "We knew if we lost that parking lot we would be in a world of hurt," Chase says. "The building sat empty for about a year-and-a-half. This secures our future growth."
With assistance from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation and the city of Venice, the theater expects to receive about $800,000 to buy the property and refurbish it. In the short term, the theater plans to relocate its props department from an annex building to the Tamiami Trail facility. "This will save us a tremendous amount of money over the long term," Chase says. "We will be saving $13 grand a year - alone - in rental costs. This was the shot of the lifetime. ... Without those two sources we never could have been able to buy the building. We are really grateful."
Chase says the building is in relatively good shape, but the theater plans to replace the roof and do some general upkeep of the facility. Estimated cost of the renovation is about $40,000.
"The interior is pretty good if you don't mind the '70s decor," Chase says. "Probably down the road we will tear down the building and build a bigger building."
Jim Walter of Richardson Kleiber Walter handled the transaction.
John Cannon Homes
sees record third quarter
Sarasota-based John Cannon Homes has experienced a record breaking third quarter. Chief Operating Officer Dave Snyde says, "We sold 26% more homes in the third quarter alone than we did the entire first half of the year." John Cannon Homes is breaking ground on three new communities: Teal Creek and Belmont in Lakewood Ranch and River Wilderness, In addition, Cannon has expanded into the Tampa Bay market at MiraBay, a gated community on 750 waterfront acres on the South Shore.
Formation Capital
buys Palmetto nursing home
Alpharetta, Ga.-based Formation Capital LLC and New York City-based Longwing Real Estate Ventures LLC purchased 19 Florida skilled-nursing facilities from Atlanta-based Mariner Health Care Inc. for $86 million.
As part of the larger portfolio acquisition, Formation Capital bought the Mariner Health Care, a 120-bed assisted living facility at 926 Haben Blvd., Palmetto, for $5.6 million. Representatives for Formation Capital say no changes are planned. In a mortgage filed in Manatee County, Formation Properties received $62 million from Citigroup Global Markets Realty Corp. for its portion of the Florida nursing homes.
Etc ...
× Pelican National Bank of Fort Myers purchased the financial services office building at 804 Cape Coral Parkway, Cape Coral, from Olde Property Corp./H & R Block. James Hall, broker, and Barry Gionfriddo, sales associate with Colliers Arnold Commercial Real Estate Services Inc.'s Fort Myers office, represented the seller.
× First Choice Properties of Lehigh Acres purchased an acre commercial site at the intersection of Lee and Leonard boulevards in Lehigh Acres from Florida Landmark Communities Inc. Barry Gionfriddo, a sales associate of the Colliers Arnold Commercial Real Estate Services Inc.'s Fort Myers office represented the buyer.
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