Properties get new life

It took a year, but two noteworthy properties formerly under the domain of Sarasota-based Paradise Homes, which filed for bankruptcy in October 2012, have new tenants.

One new tenant is the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, which signed a lease for a 4,000-square-foot former Viking Culinary Center on Lakewood Ranch Main Street in east Manatee County. Paradise Homes, founded by entrepreneur Jim Butler, opened the center in fall 2011. Butler, in previous interviews with the Business Observer, says he sought both a cooking school and a showroom for potential homebuilding clients. He spent more than $1 million in high-end cabinetry, furnishings and appliances.

But the center was closed a little more than a year later. The space ultimately went back to Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty, a subsidiary of Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch. USF signed a lease with Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty Oct. 17. “We like that there will be a connection between Lakewood Ranch and a major university,” Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty Director of Leasing Julia DeCastro told the East County Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer. “It will bring people to the ranch who aren't normally here.”