Wyoming registered agent conglomerate acquires Tampa shopping center for $8M

TAMPA — For the second times in three months, a shopping center near the University of South Florida has changed hands.

Palm Connection, on Bearss Avenue, sold for $8.15 million. The sale of the 29,600-square-foot center includes an undeveloped half-acre outparcel, according to statement from CBRE, which announced the sale. The center is 92% leased and the current 14 tenants are mostly restaurants.

Stanley Properties LLC is the seller. The buyer is Tampa Venture Alliance LLC, a company with a St. Petersburg address according to Florida’s Division of Corporations. There is little else known about the company and CBRE did not respond to an email seeking more information on who is involved in Tampa Venture.

The address, 7901 4th St. N., for Tampa Venture in the state’s database belongs to Florida Registered Agent LLC. Florida Registered Agent LLC lists as its registered agent Registered Agents Inc., which also shows 7901 4th St. N. as its principal address. 

To confuse matters even more, both Tampa Venture Alliance and Registered Agents Inc. list a Washington state company as their registered agent. The name of that registered agent is Northwest Registered Agent LLC and, at this point, you can probably guess its principal Florida address — 7901 4th St. N.

While all these entities are tied together by the St. Petersburg address, two of the entities — Registered Agents Inc. and Florida Registered Agent LLC — list as a director and authorized representative individuals working out of an office at 30 N. Gould in Sheridan, Wyoming.

A Google search of that address brings up a story published in the Sheridan Press in August, where Wyoming’s Secretary of State Office reports that “Registered Agents Inc., located at 30 N. Gould St. in downtown Sheridan, represents an estimated 53,267 businesses.”

“Registered Agents Inc., though, is just one commercial registered agent listed at that address. According to a roster on the Secretary of State website, a total of 21 commercial registered agents have offices at 30 N. Gould St.”

A search of Florida’s Division of Corporations’ database found several thousand companies using the 7901 4th St. N. address.

Palm Connection is about three miles from the USF campus and is the second shopping center to sell near the university in recent months.

In November, Fowler Plaza North, on Fowler Avenue just east of University Mall, sold for $7.3 million to the Lote Group, a private real estate development and investment group in Gainesville.

The area has also seen a run of apartment complexes sold, with at least four multimillion-dollar deals completed in the second half of 2021.