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Commercial RE Briefs
Commercial Real Estate by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor
TAMPA BAY
Cypress Creek Capital buys Eastpointe Office building
BUYER: East Tampa LLC, Fort Lauderdale
SELLER: Taurus Tampa Bay LLC
PROPERTY: 3802 Corporex Park Drive, Tampa
PRICE: $8.4 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $6 million, June 2004
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The Fort Lauderdale-based real estate and investment banking fund of Cypress Creek Capital purchased the 80,451-square-foot three-story Eastpointe Office Building in Tampa for $8.4 million or about $104 per square foot.
"We really bought that in connection with an adjacent building we just acquired, Lakeview Office building," says Jason Isaacson, chief investment office for Cypress Creek Capital. "That's 187,500-square-feet mainly occupied by Bank of America. We got that, Eastpointe, and we also got entitlement rights to build an about 119,000-square-foot building next to Lakeview."
The two office buildings were attractive, Isaacson says, because they were mainly made up of tenants with older leases that were below market rate in the geographically strong rental office market of East Tampa.
"We thought it would be pretty easy to increase rents as leases come due," Isaacson says.
The two office buildings are Cypress Creek's first acquisition on the west coast of Florida.
Brad Luger and Larry Randolph of GVA Advantis represented the seller.
East Tampa LLC and CC East Tampa LLC mortgaged the Lakeview and Eastpointe offices buildings to General Electric Capital Corp. for $28.5 million.
Harrod Properties buys Bayshore Professional Center
BUYER: H. P. Bay St. LLLP (principal Gary Harrod), Tampa
SELLER: Norman D. Mallory, Trustee
PROPERTY: 517 and 511 W. Bay St., Tampa
PRICE: $4.81 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.7 million, August 1991
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Tampa-based commercial developer Harrod Properties Inc. purchased the 20-year-old Bayshore Professional Center, a 24,150-square-foot office building, and a separate nearby parking lot.
"We're probably going to rename it," says Chad Harrod, president of Harrod Properties. "What we really liked was the location. It's in south Tampa and on the water and their certainly isn't [much of either available]."
Harrod says the company is planning to make renovations to the building, but the developer hadn't received any prices yet to determine exactly what construction it will perform.
"We're really just looking to rehab it and fill it back up,' Harrod says.
Harrod Properties' purchase entity, H. P. Bay St. LLLP, mortgaged the property to Bank of St. Petersburg for $43.84 million.
Sunrise Senior Living completes Aston Gardens acquisitions
BUYER: Sunrise A. G. Tampa Bay LLC, McLean, Vir.
SELLER: Aston Gardens At Tampa Bay LLC
PROPERTY: 11702 Lake Aston Court
PRICE: $57.2 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.9 million, June 2000
BUYER: Sunrise A. G. Courtyards LLC
SELLER: Courtyards At Sun City Center LP
PROPERTY: 225 Courtyards Blvd., Sun City
PRICE: $51.52 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.2 million, October 1994
BUYER: Sunrise A. G. Sun City Center LLC
SELLER: Aston Gardens At Sun City Center
PROPERTY: 1311 Aston Gardens Court
PRICE: $40.8 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $2.075 million, December 1997
BUYER: Sunrise AG Sun Center Land LLC
SELLER: Portofino at Sun City Center LLC
PROPERTY: open storage property in Sun City
PRICE: $250,100
PREVIOUS PRICE: $155,200, October 2005
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Foley Lardner LLP, Tampa
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: McLean, Va.-based Sunrise Senior Living Inc. purchased three senior living facilities and a vacant piece of property in Hillsborough County for about $150 million. The transactions were half of a six-property purchase of Aston Gardens communities by Sunrise and its financial partner, GE Healthcare Financial Services.
The six Aston Gardens also included properties in Venice, Naples and Parkland. The properties, which have annual revenues of more than $65 million, were purchased for a grand total of $450 million, which included $134 million in debt assumption, and an additional $10 million in transaction costs. The six centers have the capacity to house about 2,300 residents.
Etc...
• The Tampa office of Trammell Crow Co. has been tapped as the exclusive brokerage for the nearly one-million-square-foot Meridian Distribution Center in Sarasota. The center features 699,190 square feet of dry storage and 208,047 square feet of refrigerated storage. The warehouse space can be subdivided into 100,000-square-foot increments.
• St. Paul, Minn.-based Weekes Forest Products purchased commercial land in Canal Industrial Park from Canal Associates Inc. for $2 million. The building-material distributor has seven offices, including one in Tampa, and six distribution centers in 13 states.
LEE/COLLIER
Songy partners, D'Jamoos Group buy in Forum for office park
BUYER: Forum II LLC (principal David Songy), Atlanta
SELLER: AGBLLC of Florida
PROPERTY: 3050 Champion Ring Road, Fort Myers
PRICE: $8.98 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $12.5 million (included additional land), October 1998
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Bolanos Truxton PA, Fort Myers
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Atlanta-based commercial real-estate firm Songy Partners LLC and Naples-based developer The D'Jamoos Group purchased 41.5 acres in the Fort Myers development, The Forum, between Interstate 75, State Road 82 and Colonial Boulevard. The partners are planning to develop the property as a seven-building class A professional office complex.
Robert Brooks, Florida regional director for Songy Partners Realty Ltd., says much of the attraction for the Atlanta company was the city's extremely low vacancy rates for office space.
"Office space is at less than 4% across the Fort Myers sub-market," Brooks says, explaining that Songy is looking to tap that pent-up demand.
Construction is expected to start soon on the infrastructure work, and the partnership hopes to deliver the first building - a three-story, 60,000-square-foot office building - by the end of 2007.
Atlanta-based Cooper Carry has been tapped as the architect for the project. Johnson Engineering is the civil engineer for the office park, and Owen-Ames-Kimball Company will be the general contractor.
The partnership mortgaged the property to U.S. Bank NA LLC for $12.5 million.
AGB LLC, a company headed by Miami Heat basketball coach Pat Riley, is the master developer for 706-acre The Forum at Fort Myers. Construction first started on the development in 2003, and it will eventually feature residential, office, retail and other commercial space, a YMCA, a nature preserve, movie theaters and Home Depot retail store.
Songy Partners has offices and on-going projects in Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Mexico City, Knoxville, Tampa, Boca Raton, Lafayette, and Dallas. The company focuses on urban infill developments and those that target the office, hotel and/or residential markets. Currently, Songy Partners owns two developments in the Gulf Coast market: University Park in Fort Myers and Palm Lake in Tampa.
The D'Jamoos Group's past and current residential/commercial and mixed-use projects include: Andalucia, Galleria Plaza, Quail Plaza and Vanderbilt Galleria in Naples; Estero on the River, Colony Plaza, Corkscrew Palms, Plaza del Sol, and Coconut Crossing in Estero; and Orion Center and The Franklin Arms Building in Fort Myers.
Bonita Springs Baymont Inn sold, being renovated
BUYER: Bonita Springs Hotel LLC
SELLER: Seagate Management Inc.
PROPERTY: 27991 Oakland Drive, Bonita Springs
PRICE: $5.2 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $600,000, June 1999
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Vogel Law Office PA, Naples
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Virginia Beach, Va., hotelier Bharat Patel and Vinny Patel purchased the 60-unit Baymont Inn & Suites in Bonita Springs for $5.2 million. "We just thought it had a great potential to do good business," says Vinny Patel. "It's right next to the high-traffic exit [off Interstate 75.]" The partners expect to move forward soon on plans to completely refurbish the hotel, individual units, lobby and atrium.
Bharat Patel owns the Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn in Virginia Beach, according to Vinny Patel, and is developing a Candlewood Suites there as well.
Bonita Springs Hotel LLC, the entity the two partners used to purchase Baymont Inn, also owns the Hampton Inn in Bonita Springs, which it purchased for $4.75 million in March.
The new owners mortgaged the Baymont Inn property to Branch Bank and Trust Co. of Virginia for $4.4 million.
N.J. entrepreneur, partner plan Lehigh carwash, office building
BUYER: London Properties Inc., Freehold, N.J.
SELLER: Gulfstream Development Group LLC
PROPERTY: 5280 Lee Blvd., Lehigh Acres
PRICE: $1.28 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $563,600, September 2004
TITLE FIRM ON DEED: Paradise Title Services Inc., Cape Coral
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: London Properties purchased 2.2 acres in Lehigh Acres with ambitions to develop a full-service carwash and professional office building. Jeff London, president of London Properties and several other companies in New Jersey, is partnering with Estero's Jene Allison, who developed and owns a Classic Carwash on Corkscrew Road, to develop Classic Carwash 2 on the Lehigh Acres site.
"This is really catering to the needs of Lehigh Acres and the surrounding area," London says. "We will also be building a 10,000-square-foot multi-use [office] building next door."
Construction is schedule to start on the two businesses in February; the carwash and commercial building are expected to open by November 2007.
London's main vocation is running a computer-consulting business in New Jersey, but he has since expanded into other industries, including real estate. The Lehigh project is London's first development in Florida; he owns about 10 other previously constructed real estate properties in the state.
London Properties mortgaged the property to Marco Communities Bank for $1.03 million.
Etc...
• MT Lotz LLC purchased a 7,672-square-foot medical office building at 3487 Broadway, Fort Myers from Broadway Pines Partnership for $750,000. Gary Tasman of VIP Commercial-TCN Worldwide negotiated the transaction.
• Coastal Beverage Ltd., the Anheuser-Busch distributor to Collier and Lee counties, purchased a parcel of industrial land at 68 Industrial Blvd., in Collier County from Dennis Combs and Earl Hodges, individual and trustee of the Earl Hodges Trust, for $1.95 million. Ed McNamara, president of the distributor, declined to comment on the purchase saying the company had not finalized its plans for the site.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Florida Inc. leased 3,200-square-feet office in The Atrium Executive Center at 8695 College Parkway, Unit 230, Fort Myers from The Atrium Executive Center. Paul Sands and Mike Doyle of VIP Commercial TCN Worldwide represented the tenant in the lease transaction.
SARASOTA/MANATEE
Burton-Katzman Development buys L-3 Cattlemen property
BUYER: BKOP1 LLC (principal: Gregory Burcz), Sarasota
SELLER: DMB/Sarasota I LP
PROPERTY: 106 and 90 Cattlemen Road, Sarasota
PRICE: $15.2 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $10.1 million, October 1997
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Icard Merrill Cullis Timm Furen & Ginsburg PA, Sarasota
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Bingham Farms, Mich.-based family-owned developer Burton-Katzman Development Co. Inc. purchased an 84-acre parcel, including the 300,000-square-foot L-3 Communications manufacturing building, for $15.2 million. The property, a brownfield (contaminated) site, was previously owned by the brownfield-redevelopment investment company Dames & Moore/Brookhill LLC, a joint venture of the environmental engineering firm Dames & Moore Group and the commercial real estate firm the Brookhill Group. D&M/B bought the site and leased it back to L-3 Communications while the environmental/investment group cleaned up the contaminants.
It was the contaminated condition among other reasons that attracted Gregory Burcz, vice president of regional operations for Burton-Katzman Development. Burcz has considerable experience redeveloping brownfield sites, particularly as president and chief financial officer for the real estate and transportation company Crown Enterprises Inc.
Talking about the site in an early September interview, Burcz said that most of the contamination has been removed from the site except for some remaining ground-water contamination. Burcz did not return calls for this story prior to publication.
Burton-Katzman Development mortgaged the L-3 site to LaSalle Bank Midwest NA for $12.83 million.
In September, Burton-Katzman Development purchased several acres on the southwest corner of Honore Avenue and University Parkway in Sarasota for $5.17 million. The company plans to construct a two-building, 88,000-square-foot office development on the site.
Williams family takes over two Farley Funeral Homes
BUYER: J.M. Williams LLC (John and Michelle Williams), Venice
SELLER: David and M. Joanne Farley
PROPERTY: 265 S Nokomis Ave., Venice and 5900 S. Biscayne Drive, North Port
PRICE: $1.7 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Dooley & Drake PA, Sarasota
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: John Williams and his wife, Michelle Farley Williams, purchased two Farley Funeral Homes from her parents David and Joanne Farley for $1.7 million.
"My wife grew up in the funeral service business," says John Williams. "Her first job was pulling weeds for her parents' funeral home. Now she's the fourth generation of [Farley funeral home] owners carrying on that tradition."
Both Williams have attended mortuary school and have worked in funeral homes/cemeteries for decades. The sale doesn't mean that the Farleys are leaving the business. Both are planning to continue to work for the near future. But with the Williams' at the helm of the business, the Farleys have more time to visit their nine grandchildren.
"Now the demands of working a 60-hour work week are ours," says John Williams.
The purchase entity J.M. Williams LLC mortgaged the property to Colonial Bank for $1.9 million and to David and M. Joanne Farley individually and trust, in a junior mortgage for $1.68 million.
KVN Heating, Air moving to larger Centre Park suite
BUYER: KVN LLC, Sarasota
SELLER: NMB LLC
PROPERTY: 7186 21st St. E., Sarasota
PRICE: $1.36 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Norton Hammersley Lopez & Skokos PA, Sarasota
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Noel Speranza, president and owner of KVN Heating and Air Conditioning Inc., purchased several units in a new light manufacturing/flex building in Centre Park for $1.36 million. Speranza was also part of the partnership NMB LLC, along with William and Matt Wenzel, which constructed the building. KVN Heating and Air Conditioning relocated from 4545 Mariotti Court, Unit N in Sarasota to the new 11,000-square-foot space near the end of September.
Gretchen McGavic with KVN Heating and Air Conditioning says the new building offered KVN both a central location to both counties and a new larger building space built around their needs.
"There aren't a lot of buildings like this," McGavic says. "It was really designed to be a lot more useful for typical warehouse users. Things like the warehouse space is taller; we can stack pallets seven high in the back."
Four condominium units are still available for sale in the building. KVN Heating and Air Conditioning has grown to employ about 100 people and operate 25 service vans and other vehicles.
Chuck Keels of Preferred Commercial Inc. handled the transaction.
KVN Heating and Air Conditioning mortgaged the property to Bank of Commerce for $1.088 million.
Etc...
• Partners in Practice is constructing a single-story, 20,000-square-foot headquarters on 2.5 acres in the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park. The new building will be at Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, on a cul-de-sac at the end of Energy Court.
Partners in Practice is currently housed on Main Street in downtown Sarasota. The company will relocate once construction on the new headquarters is complete, which is schedule for sometime in May. The general contractor for the project is The Charles & Chase Group Inc., and the architect for the project was Edge Architecture Inc.
Operated by co-owners/founders Thomas Blankenship, CEO, and Karen Vale, President, Partners in Practice is a physician's outsource company that provides billing and accounts receivable management, medical transcription and information technology services.
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