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Real Estate Briefs (Tampa)
Deal of the Week
Patel-led Venture Buys Beachfront Properties
An investment group headed by Clearwater real estate investor Sandip Patel spent nearly $19 million last month on three beachfront properties with plans to convert or redevelop the sites into condominiums. The deals include two motel-apartment properties the Schiefer family operated the past 20-25 years on Indian Rocks Beach and Treasure Island.
The Schiefer's sold the 45-unit Gulf Towers Resort Motel, 404 Gulf Blvd., Indian Rocks Beach, for $9 million, and the 14-unit Jefferson Motel apartments, 10116 Gulf Blvd., Treasure Island, for $5.2 million.
The buyer intends to convert those properties into condos, acknowledges Marilyn Schiefer, president of Gulf Towers of Indian Rocks Beach Inc. and Schiefer Motels Inc. She declined to discuss details of the family business.
"We are planning other business ventures," Schiefer says. "We anticipate venturing into another field (of business)."
Patel, a Clearwater lawyer who served as general counsel at the former publicly traded Wellcare Management Group Inc., did not respond to requests for comment.
Property records show two operating entities, Orion Beach Development V LLC and Orion Beach Development VI LLC, purchased about 39,000 square feet of beachfront and 12,856 square feet of building improvements from the Schiefer family.
Mortgage documents list Patel as the operating entities' managing member.
Based on property records, the investment group paid the Schiefer family $1,105 a square foot for the buildings or $14.2 million for slightly less than one acre. To finance the Gulf Towers deal, Patel obtained a mortgage of almost $8 million from Whitney National Bank. He mortgaged the Jefferson Motel property for $5 million through the same bank.
In an unrelated deal, Orion Beach Development VII LLC purchased several parcels for $4.5 million in the 19900 block of Gulf Boulevard in Indian Shores. The deal includes two small cottages built in the 1950s, a 1,247-square-foot home built in 1974 and a total of about 21,600 square feet of land.
The sellers, Robert N. and Cynthia R. Cadrecha, originally purchased one of the parcels, a 6,300-square-foot vacant lot, in 1988. Earlier this year, the couple acquired the two cottages with 570 square feet each on two lots of 2,250 square feet each for a total of $425,000.
Property records show the Patel-led investment group paid the couple about $208 a square foot or $4.5 million for a half-acre of land.
The buyer obtained $4.1 million in financing for the deal through Compass Bank.
Canadian condo converter
buys St. Pete's Glenbrook
BUYER: Cypress Development LLC, St. Petersburg.
SELLER: Everest Glenbrook LLC, Pasadena, Calif.
PROPERTY: 9100 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N., St. Petersburg.
PRICE: $16,350,000.
PRIOR SALE: $6,230,000 in May 2001.
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Roetzel & Andress PA, Naples.
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Tenants at St. Petersburg's Glenbrook apartments learned the week of Aug. 29 that a new owner bought the 196 rental units there with plans to convert them into condominiums.
Cypress Development LLC recently paid almost $16.4 million, or $83,418 a unit, for the 27-acre property at 9100 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. That's about 162% more than the $6.2 million Pasadena, Calif.-based Everest Glenbrook LLC paid in 2001. Property records list Canadian condo converter Ross Galbraith as Cypress Development's managing member. He financed the acquisition with a $15.5 million loan through Fremont Investment & Loan.
This is Galbraith's second condo conversion project in the Tampa Bay area, says George Papachristu, Cypress Development's sales and marketing manager. Galbraith also converted the Eden Isle Condos on St. Petersburg's Snell Isle.
Since the mid-1980s, Galbraith has completed numerous condo conversions projects, Papachristu says. Many of those projects are in Canada, he adds, though Galbraith has completed similar projects in Naples and Titusville. About a year ago, he says, Galbraith converted 300 units of military housing into townhomes at New York's Plattsburgh Air Force Base.
Pre-registration for unit sales at Glenbrook should begin in late September, Papachristu says. Prices will range from about $89,900 to $179,900. Extensive renovations are planned.
California couple invests
in Northwood Commons
BUYER: Northwood Commons LLC, Ojai, Calif.
SELLER: Northwood Commons Inc., Belleair Bluffs.
PROPERTY: 2454 McMullen Booth Road, Safety Harbor.
PRICE: $10,680,000.
PRIOR SALE: $3,275,000, November 1996.
TITLE AGENCY ON DEED: Title Agency of Florida Inc., Largo.
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Retired California investors Bob and Betty Rains acquired the Northwood Commons office-retail complex in Safety Harbor.
Operating as Northwood Commons LLC, the couple paid almost $10.7 million for about 69,000 square feet of office and retail space on about 6.6 acres at 2454 McMullen Booth Road. That's almost $155 a square foot for the space in the three buildings. The purchase price exceeds the prior sale price by about 226%. Northwood Commons Inc., a company controlled by Belleair Bluffs investor Greg Veltman, bought the site in 1996 for almost $3.3 million.
The couple inherits a property with occupancy of about 96%. Soon after the couple purchased the property one tenant vacated about 3,000 square feet of space.
"We're going to give it a facelift and redo a number of things to bring it up to date," says Bob Rains, who raises Paso Fino horses in the California city of Ojai. "We want to make it a lot more appealing to our tenants."
This may not be the couple's only foray into the state.
"We like the Florida market," he says. "There is opportunity in Florida. Being in California, things are much higher there. There is good growth potential in the northern area (of Pinellas County) up McMullen Booth Road. We are looking at some other properties."
Tampa hospital pays hefty
price for parking garage
BUYER: Florida Health Sciences Center Inc., Tampa.
SELLER: City of Tampa.
PROPERTY: 35 Columbia Drive.
PRICE: $29,000,000.
PRIOR SALE: Not available.
LEGAL AGENT ON DEED: Tampa city attorney's office.
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Florida Health Sciences Center Inc., the parent of Tampa General Hospital, recently closed on the $29 million acquisition of a 2,900-space parking facility adjacent to the main building on Davis Islands. That's about $31.49 a square foot for the 921,053-square-foot parking garage at 35 Columbia Drive. The seller, the city of Tampa, constructed the building in 1989 on about 1.8 acres.
The purchase price for the eight-level structure amounts to about 5% of the parent corporation's total assets of $571 million, as of the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2004.
The parent company intends to retain the garage space, says company spokesman John Dunn. In a related action, the parent company leased a nearby quarter-acre parcel from the city. The 25-year lease is valued at $1. The company wants to build a 1,400-space parking garage on space currently used as a city park.
Boca Raton group acquires
Temple Terrace apartments
BUYER: Brentwood Place Tampa Apartments Ltd., Boca Raton.
SELLER: Brentwood Place LP, Nashville.
PROPERTY: 8741 Grove Terrace, Temple Terrace.
PRICE: $8,735,000.
PRIOR SALE: $5,287,500, June 2000.
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis PA, Nashville.
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The investment group that Boca Raton's Ventron Realty Corp. represents tends to buy apartments properties for the rental income and equity investment opportunities. At least that's how it appears at the three Tampa rental properties the group purchased over six months about three years ago.
So it makes sense the group expects to execute a similar strategy at its most recent purchase in the Tampa Bay area - the 180 rental units at Brentwood Place in Temple Terrace. No one with the investment group - headed by Ron Eisenberg, the managing general partner and Ventron's president - responded to a request for information.
The investment group, operating as Brentwood Place Tampa Apartments Ltd., paid about $8.7 million, or $48,528 a unit, for the 9.14-acre property east of 50th Street off Busch Boulevard. The deal includes 14 buildings constructed in 1974.
The sale reflects about a 65% increase in the value of the property at 8741 Grove Terrace. The prior owner, Brentwood Place LP, purchased the property in June 2000 for almost $5.3 million. Corporate records list Nashville investors Marc Carter and Harris Haston as the prior owner's managing members.
To finance the purchase, the Boca Raton group obtained a $7.4 million mortgage through KeyBank NA. Eisenberg signed the documents as president of Brentwood Place GP Inc., the buyer's managing member.
Besides the Temple Terrace property, the Boca Raton Group also owns the following three Tampa-area rental properties: Brookside, 354 units, 5008 Sierra Place; Windwood Oaks, 352 units, 14802 N. Florida Ave.; and Harbour Walk/Sandstone, 400 units, 6102 Webb Road.
Over the past five years, Ventron Realty claims in promotional materials it has participated in the sale and acquisition of more than 10,000 apartments with a value of around $420 million. Eisenberg identifies himself as general partner of an investment group that has acquired more than 1,100 apartments in the Tampa area.
Holiday Inn Express sells
for $8.5 million in Tampa
BUYER: OM Star LLC, Tampa.
SELLER: Waters Hotel Partners II LLC, Tampa.
PROPERTY: 9402 Corporate Lake Drive, unincorporated Hillsborough County.
PRICE: $8,500,000.
PRIOR SALE: Vacant parcel, $654,000, in 2001. LAW FIRM ON DEED: Ward Rovell PA, Tampa.
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: OM Star LLC, an investment group headed by Kamlesh Patel, has acquired the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in the Tampa's Westlake Corporate Park. The Tampa-based investment group paid $8.5 million for the 85-room, limited-service hotel at 9402 Corporate Lake Drive. That's $100,000 per room for the site east of the Veterans Expressway on Anderson Road.
Waters Hotel Partners II LLC, the seller, purchased the development site in May 2001 for $654,000 and began construction on the hotel a few months later. The seller is an affiliate of BayStar Hotel Group LLC, a Tampa company controlled by George Glover. The buyer financed the acquisition with a $6.8 million mortgage through Nomura Credit & Capital Inc.
- David R. Corder
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