Real Estate investor buys Main Street building

BUYER: Big Main Street LLC (manager: Christopher Brown), Sarasota
SELLER: Bridgestone Retail Operations LLC
PROPERTY: 1710 Main St., Sarasota
PRICE: $1 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $11,000, February 2014

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
Business owner and real estate investor Chris Brown purchased a 7,386-square-foot auto repair shop at the corner of Pine Place for $1 million.

The price equated to $135 per square foot. That figure is near the two-year average price per square foot for retail space ($129) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

Firestone Complete Auto Care previously operated from the building. The 0.38-acre parcel is immediately adjacent to the IberiaBank building and across the street from Main Street Square and Il Panificio.

Brown owns a number of other Main Street buildings. He purchased the three-story, 27,461-square-foot IberiaBank building at 1718 Main St., Sarasota in late 2012 for $2 million. More recently, he purchased the former Tropical Thai space at 1410 Main St., Sarasota for $1.4 million and leased it to Fit2Run.

Brown and his business partner Mike Granthon have also been expanding their holdings on Siesta Key. They now own almost all the commercial properties at the intersection of Ocean Boulevard, Canal Road and Avenida Messina.

— additional reporting by Alex Mahadevan, correspondent