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Commercial RE Briefs
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor
LEE/COLLIER
Naples' Hovland Real Estate planning Seville Square
BUYER: Two Lakes Development LLC, Naples
SELLER: Two Lakes of Naples LLC
PROPERTY: 15000 Tamiami Trial N., Naples
PRICE: $7 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $5.9 million, April 2004
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Paulich Slack & Wolff PA, Naples
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Naples development company and real estate brokerage Hovland Real Estate purchased nine acres in the Two Lakes commercial park for $7 million. On the developable five acres, Hovland plans to build Seville Square, a two-story, 73,000-square-foot commercial condominium building with office and retail space.
"These are going to be relatively small units," says Steve Hovland, president of Hovland Real Estate, indicating the starting size for the units at 554 square feet. "I already have about 30% committed."
The asking price for the units ranges from $315 to $400 a square foot and includes finished interior walls.
Construction on the building is currently scheduled for June and completion will likely come in Spring of 2008.
Hovland's Two Lakes Development LLC mortgaged the property to the former owner Two Lakes of Naples for $2 million and to Florida Community Bank for $14.5 million.
Benderson Development sells 133 acres
BUYER: Colonial Square Associates LLC (principal: Glen Eisenhut), Bradenton
SELLER: Delta-Sonic Carwash Systems Inc. (4.76% interest), Ronald Benderson, Randall Benderson and David Baldauf as trustees of the Evan Benderson 1989 Trust, Todd Benderson 1989, Brett Benderson 1989 Trust and Shaun Benderson 1989 Trust and David Feurstein, and additional companies
PROPERTY: 9341 Ben C. Pratt Six-Mile Cypress Parkway, Fort Myers
PRICE: $21 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $21 million, September 2004
BUYER: Colonial Square Associates LLC (principal: Glen Eisenhut), Bradenton
SELLER: Benderson Properties Inc. fka Benderson Development Co. Inc.
PROPERTY: 20.09 acres on Colonial Boulevard, Fort Myers
PRICE: $2 million
BUYER: Six Mile Preserve LLC (principal: Charles Smith), Parrish
SELLER: Delta-Sonic Carwash Systems Inc. (4.76% interest), Ronald Benderson, Randall Benderson and David Baldauf as trustees of the Evan Benderson 1989 Trust, Todd Benderson 1989, Brett Benderson 1989 Trust and Shaun Benderson 1989 Trust and David Feurstein, and additional companies
PROPERTY: 9601 and 9851 Ben C. Pratt Six-Mile Cypress Parkway, Fort Myers
PRICE: $11.5 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $11.5 million, September 2004
BUYER: Six Mile Preserve LLC (principal: Charles Smith), Parrish
SELLER: Benderson Properties Inc. fka Benderson Development Co. Inc.
PROPERTY: a 20-acre portion of Colonial Boulevard, Fort Myers
PRICE: $2 million
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: University Park-based developer Benderson Development Co. Inc. sold 40 acres on Colonial Boulevard and 93 acres on Ben C. Pratt Six Mile Cypress Parkway, in Fort Myers to Chris Smith's Six Mile Preserve LLC and Glen Eisenhut's Colonial Square Associates LLC for a total of 36.5 million. Officials for Benderson Development did not return calls prior to deadline and the Review was unable to contact Smith or Eisenhut.
Two Investment groups buy Southwest Florida parcels
BUYER: GB Treeline LLC (principals: George and Jill Ebel), Fort Myers
SELLER: Southwest Florida Investment Property LLC
PROPERTY: 14.27acres at 14600 and 14650 Jetport Loop, Fort Myers
PRICE: $4.96 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $2.3 million, July 2002 (contains additional parcels)
BUYER: Jenisa Investments LLC (principals: George and Jill Ebel), Fort Myers
SELLER: Southwest Florida Investment Property LLC
PROPERTY: 12 acres at 14530 and 14538 Global Parkway and additional land, Fort Myers
PRICE: $3.14 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.23 million, October 2003 (contains additional parcels)
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Sheppard Brett Stewart Hersch & Kinsey PA, Fort Myers
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: George Ebel, of Action Automatic Door & Gate in Fort Myers, headed two investment groups that purchased two tracts in Southwest International Commerce Park for about $8.1 million. Ebel described the two parcels, zoned for light industrial or warehouse uses, as a smart investment because of their location on a new road near a growing airport.
"They are central to just about everything," Ebel says. "They're really best for distribution because you're so closed to I-75. Its just a really a nice deed-restricted upscale park and there's nothing else like it in all of Lee County."
Ebel has listed the Global Parkway properties with Robert Johnston of CB Richard Ellis and has listed the Jetport Loop parcels with Paul Sands of Sands Commercial Group in VIP Commercial. The asking price for parcels is $12 a square foot.
Etc...
• Gates D'Alessandro & Woodyard LLC is taking reservations for the new Andrews Professional Center at 312 Del Prado Boulevard S. in Cape Coral. Zoned P1 it offers 46,000 square feet for medical or professional office space users. The four-story building is a mile north of the Cape Coral Hospital. Suites start at 1,500 square feet.
• Fort Myers-based J.L. Wallace Inc. is clearing land for the Estero Bay Chevrolet car dealership at 10640 Chevrolet Way off Corkscrew Boulevard. After the land is cleared, construction of the building is expected to begin later this month. The project includes the construction of a single-story building totaling 29,000 square feet, with an 11,000-square-foot showroom and an 18,000-square-foot service area. Construction is scheduled for completion in November.
• Southwest Florida Addiction Services awarded the architectural contract for its new Detoxification Center and Outpatient Treatment Center to Burt Hill/Pollock Krieg Architects Inc. of Fort Myers. The 40,000-square-foot centers will be built on land at Evans Avenue donated by the City of Fort Myers under a long-term lease. The four-acre parcel also will include room for outpatient counseling offices now located on McGregor Boulevard. The new center will replace the existing 25-bed facility on Dixie Parkway in downtown Fort Myers that is housed in a 47-year-old converted motel. An $8 million capital campaign to build the new center currently is underway. SWFAS plans to break ground later this year with completion set for a year later.
• Fort Myers-based Eagle Concrete Systems completed concrete work on the 49,910-square-foot Sun Sports Cycle and Watercraft retail showroom and 23,625-square-foot warehouse building at the corner of Colonial Boulevard and Veronica Shoemaker Boulevard. The walls were constructed of 77 steel-reinforced, tilt-wall concrete panels. The building will house Sun Sports Cycle and Watercraft's retail and warehouse space, as well as tenant lease space.
• Brooks & Freund has started construction on Sandpiper Center at 3725 Bonita Beach Road in Bonita Springs. The 23,166-square-foot metal building will serve as retail and office space for 14 tenants. Construction is scheduled for completion in September 2007.
• WilsonMiller, a planning, design, engineering and surveying firm, will relocate the firm's Fort Myers office to the Westlinks Business Park in early March of 2007. "The new Fort Myers office is the result of over 20 years of growth and success," said Richard Woodruff, DPA, AICP, a WilsonMiller Senior vice president and managing principal of Fort Myers operations in a press release announcing the move.
WilsonMiller opened its Fort Myers office in 1983 and relocated to its current facility on Colonial Boulevard in 1989. In the new, two-story Westlinks building, the firm will occupy the entire second floor and about two-thirds of the first floor. Westlinks Business Park is located within Gateway, a 5,000-acre master planned community between Interstate 75 and Southwest Florida International Airport. The location offers direct access to I-75 and U.S. 41.
• PL Properties LLC purchased the 13,612-square-foot Cape Coral Retail Center at 211 Hancock Bridge Parkway, Cape Coral, from Keller Boyette Limited Partnership for $2.45 million. Jim Boback of RE/MAX Realty Group represented the buyer, and Patrick Calhoon, Century 21 represented the seller.
• Positive Improvements Inc. purchased a 17,000-square-foot showroom/warehouse building at 6184 Idlewild St., Fort Myers, from Keller Boyette limited partnership for $2,454 million. Jim Boback, RE/MAX Realty Group represented the buyer and seller.
TAMPA BAY
Chicago real estate firm buys Centro Ybor
BUYER: CMJ-Fee LLC, Chicago
SELLER: Centro Ybor Associates
PROPERTY: 1905 16th St., and 1600 E. 8th Ave. Ybor
PRICE: $26.89 million
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Chicago-based manager/owner of strip malls and office buildings M & J Wilkow purchased Centro Ybor, a 211,957-square-foot retail and entertainment center of Ybor City from BVT, a German investment fund.
The property, based around three newer buildings and the historic former Centro Espanol Club, houses 28 stores including the Muvico Theatres, Tampa Bay Brewing, GameWorks and Urban Outfitters.
Created in 2001, the $50-million plaza and movie theatre complex developed by Sembler Co., Columbus, Ohio-based Steiner + Associates and BVT was an attempt to reinvigorate Ybor City's retail and development market. Demand from shoppers has ended mixed and earlier this year, Sembler Co. and Steiner + Associates sold their portions to BVT.
M & J Wilkow is currently conducting a feasibility study of the center to decide the best approach to improve the center. The developer is reportedly considering everything from mixed-use elements, office or even additional residential property. M & J Wilkow Management has taken over operation of the center.
M & J Wilkow manages more than 25 properties nationwide. In January, the real estate firm announced a$100-million joint venture with an affiliate of the California State Teachers' Retirement System to invest in retail and multi-purpose properties.
First Industrial Realty Trust plans Bright House center
BUYER: FR/CAL Interchange LLC (principal: Firstcal Industrial LLC), Chicago
SELLER: Interchange Center Investors LLC
PROPERTY: a portion of Camden Field Parkway in the Interchange Center, Brandon
PRICE: $8.74 million
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. purchased 28.6 acres in the Interchange Center of Brandon for $8.74 million to develop a built-to-suit new operations center for the Tampa Bay Division of Bright House Networks. The industrial real-estate firm is scheduled to start construction on the 144,000-square-foot facility in March and expects construction to take about a year. Tampa's Perry Co. will be the general contractor for the project. The operations center, which will also offer 650 surface parking spaces, will be at 4145 S. Falkenberg Road.
The new operations center will consolidate about five separate offices for Bright House, according to Hank Sheraw, vice president with Bright House Networks. The 102,795-square-foot office space will house all of the operations for the company's Hillsborough region and the remaining 42,669-square-foot warehouse space will be the used to house materials for the entire Tampa Bay division.
"If we ever need to expand again later, we could find another location for the warehousing and create an additional 60,000 square feet in two stories in that warehouse space," Sheraw says. "As it stands already, much of the building will be an open environment. We will have a limited number of offices in the core of the building near the elevators and the rest of the building will be filled with modulars. The most attractive thing about the location was that we were able to locate in the Brandon area where most of our employees live."
In other recent First Industrial Realty Trust Tampa news, the firm, in a joint venture with the California State Teachers' Retirement System, acquired a 49-acre site in the Magnolia Park master development in Eastern Hillsborough County to build 550,000 square feet of service center facilities The first phase of the project, equal to 139,000 square feet, is scheduled to begin in fourth quarter 2007.
Explaining the reasoning behind the large new development, Bob Krueger, regional director of First Industrial's Central Florida region,described the Gulf Coast of Florida as the strongest market for industrial development.
Bill Eshenbaugh, president, and Ryan Sampson, both of Eshenbaugh Land Co. participated in the transaction.
First Industrial owns, manages or has under development nearly three million square feet in the Central Florida market.
Lake Worth investor buys Carrollwood Oaks
BUYER: Carrollwood Shoppes LLC (principal; Robert Preston), Lake Worth
SELLER: Carrollwood Oaks Bayway Inc.
PROPERTY: 11111 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa
PRICE: $6.1 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $960,000, June 1994
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The investment group Carrollwood Shoppes LLC purchased the seven-store Carrollwood Oaks shopping center on Dale Mabry for $6.1 million. According to CoStar Group research, the 23,197-square-foot, anchored by Kaufman & Roberts, is 100% leased. Carrollwood Shoppes LLC mortgaged the strip center to Column Financial for $4.63 million.
SARASOTA/MANATEE/CHARLOTTE
Sarasota developer buys Sarasota Grand land
BUYER: Fairway Grande Development LLC (principal: Robert Morey II), Sarasota
SELLER: Sarasota Grand Central LLC
PROPERTY: 1240 and 1230 Fourth St., 332 N. Tamiami Trail and 1225 and 1233 Fruitville Road, Sarasota
PRICE: $10.7 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $24.63 million Jan. 2006
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm, Furen & Ginsburg PA, Sarasota
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A low-key Sarasota developer has bought the prime downtown Sarasota property that was once planned for the upscale Sarasota Grand condo development for less than half the price the property fetched a year ago.
Robert Morey bought the property for $10.7 million. Sarasota Grande developers paid $24.6 million in January 2006, before the market tanked and the property became mired in scandal. Morey says he plans a mixed use on the property, probably utilizing all 18 stories allowed for the site.
"It's the entry to Sarasota and there's all that new development that is proposed," Morey says. "I'm very excited about what Patty Kelly plans to do with the Quay and the whole synergy that will add."
Kelly is working on a $1 billion project across U.S. 41 from the property, which includes the former Nello's retail building, the Holland House Apartments, two smaller buildings.
Fifth Third had a $16.25 million mortgage to Robert Martin's Sarasota Grand Central LLC for a 1.4 acre block running from Tamiami Trail - wrapping around a City of Sarasota's parcel for a planned roundabout, and bordered on the south by Fourth Avenue and on the north by Fruitville Road.
Unfortunately it had gone unnoticed by the bank that on Jan. 11, 2006, Neil Hussanni's Capital Force purchased the property for $10.36 million and one day later, it had turned around and sold the same unchanged parcel to Sarasota Grand Central LLC for $24.63 million. With the residential market slowdown and the media focus on Hussanni, who has reportedly left the country, his former partners such as Martin were left with too much property and too little cash and development to make the mortgage payments.
Fifth Third Bank had a $16 million mortgage on land that was worth probably closer to the $10 million it sold for in early 2006.
Stuck with a loan that was no longer viable in the real estate market downturn, Fifth Third Bank turned to Morey, of Fairway Development Group Inc., suggesting there may be an opportunity for him to take over the property.
The deal was reached for Morey to buy the property by taking on a $9.8 million mortgage with Fifth Third. Including interests and a real estate commission, the total purchase price for Morey was $10.7 million. Morey emphasizes that he didn't pay the former owners anything and is no way affiliated or connected to the them.
Morey says he is still appraising the development potential for the property and has hired Sarasota architect Jonathan Parks.
Even with the details still influx, Morey sees a huge potential for the site.
"I've been told we have the ability to go up to 18 stories on the site," Morey says. "Preliminarily, I envision a project there that would encompass a hotel, some residential condos with some small office and retail space. I've been told we could put up to 762,000 square feet there if we choose to."
Morey has been an admittedly low-key developer in Sarasota since 1979. He says of his background that most of his recent work in Sarasota hasn't involved a lot of vertical construction. Instead he's stuck to main partnerships and joint ventures and entitling land for development.
"Most of my vertical development has been in Tennessee and Michigan," Morey says.
He says he's currently working on developing an upscale single-family, 575-unit condominium development called Catawba Peak in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Morey is also redeveloping a former golf course property near Kalamazoo, Mich. as a condominiumized equestrian-themed development called Wilderness Hills.
City buys land for police station
BUYER: City of Sarasota
SELLER: David and Ruby Embrey individual and trusts
PROPERTY: 150 S. East Ave., Sarasota
PRICE: $2.35 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Fournier and Connolly PA, Sarasota
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The City of Sarasota purchased a small 3,878-square-foot building on East Avenue in downtown for $2.35 million. The city plans to demolish the 60-year-old building to make way for a new police station. Sarasota Police Chief Peter Abbott is currently garnering support for a $54 million bond issue, which if approved in March will fund construction of the new station.
City officials have attempted to acquire property on East Avenue for several years with no success. The city used money from its land acquisitions fund to buy the parcel.
FP&L buys Palmetto land for electrical substation
BUYER: Florida Power & Light Co., Juno Beach
SELLER: Evolve Development Group LLC
PROPERTY: 2004 and 2106 E. 20th St., Palmetto
PRICE: $1.013 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: David W. Wilcox Esq., Bradenton
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Florida Power & Light Co. purchased two lots, 3.74 acres total, in North Manatee Industrial Park for about $1 million for a future electrical substation.
"The typical footprint for a substation like that is about an acre for the control house and transformers," says Mark Byers, a senior corporate real estate representative for FP&L. "The remainder is used for storm water management - which we don't need in this case because the park has a central storm management system - landscaping and setbacks."
The net effect for local businesses and residences in the area of Palmetto near the Manatee River will be increased power reliability from the utility.
"In an outage we work from the substations out so those business in the park with us will likely be the first to recover," Byers says. "For us this is just about staying ahead of the growth."
The new substation is scheduled to go into service in June of 2008.
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