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Kalu Watanabe, others buy Ashton Pointe land
BUYER: Royal Swazi Ashton LLC, Sarasota
SELLER: M&I Regional Properties LLC successor by merger to Regional Properties of Kansas Inc.
PROPERTY: 5540 and 5555 Fielding Lane, Sarasota
PRICE: $526,800
PREVIOUS PRICE: $4.35 million, March 2005
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Godfrey & Kahn SC, Milwaukee, Wisc.
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Royal Swazi Ashton LLC, an investment group of Kalu Watanabe and several other Florida financial partners, purchased the 15.38-acre Ashton Pointe planned community on Fielding Lane north of Clark Road and west of Interstate 75 for $526,800.
The purchase equated to $34,252 per acre and $10,751 per lot.
The property has preliminary site-plan approval for 49 single-family homes. Watanabe knows the property well; he was part of the partnership that originally rezoned the property for its future development as a residential community starting around 2003.
“Back in 2005 to 2006 I was looking at the supply and demand [of residential homes] and saw that demand was starting to decline so it was time to get out,” he says. “So when the bank was determined to get rid of the property, that allowed us to fast track the due diligence. I already knew the project inside and out. When something like this gets too cheap people start getting scared and want to do extra due diligence that frankly we didn't have to do. We stole it. It's a great piece of property.”
The project's infrastructure, estimated at $1.4 million, is on hold until the new ownership reaches a threshold of homebuilder interest.
Elliott Ross, Dennis Bush and Ned Roberts of Ross Realty Group Inc. represented the seller.
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