Real Estate Briefs

Real Estate Briefs

Longboat Key Club plans

new homes, major renovations

Longboat Key Club plans to build a new tennis complex on Longboat Club Road, Longboat Key, and an additional 20 single-family homes called Ca d' Cuore, or "house of the heart." The venture is expected to generate up to $118 million, says Tom Rasmussen, executive vice president at the Longboat Key Club. The proceeds will pay for improvements to the club, including 45 newly designed holes of golf, a spa, an exercise room expansion and a new Harbourside tennis center.

Rasmussen said the planning stage of the project began about three years ago. "We always looked at that site (the tennis complex north of the Chart House) and said 'What a waste of good land,'" says Rasmussen. Tennis court usage on Longboat Club Road dropped by 47% since Key Club Associates purchased the club in 1991, Rasmussen said.

At first, Rasmussen and his associates planned to use the land for a 50-slip marina and a nine-story condominium, but the proposal was considered too extensive.

Harrell & Co. Architects have designed the Mediterranean-style homes, which will come in three models and range in size from 5,512 square feet to 6,366 square feet. Rasmussen plans to market the homes for up to $1,000 per square foot, which means they would cost between $5.5 million and $6.4 million.

But before the homes can be built, the tennis complex must be rezoned for residential use and replaced. To that end, the club is proposing a new tennis center at Harbourside, with 25 modern courts, a pro shop and a "snack bar." To accommodate Islandside tennis players, three new courts would also be installed on Longboat Club Road, bringing the total number of courts to 28.

Harbourside will be renovated first if approval can be obtained in the first quarter of 2004. The Islandside renovation would follow in 2005.

Boston pension fund

acquires Summer Cove

Boston-based TA Realty LLC purchased the Summer Cove Apartments on Lockwood Ridge Road north of University Parkway from its Raleigh, N.C.-based developer Drucker-Falk Development Co. for $17.3 million. TA Realty will hold the property in trust for an unspecified pension fund in Boston. According to N.J. Olivieri, president of Horizon Mortgage Co., the listing and selling broker, the property was sold because of its age.

"The property was constructed five or six years ago," Olivieri says. "After 10 years the property drops a level (from Class A to B or B+) no matter what its condition. It is better to sell it now ... when you can get the higher sale price."

The 11-building, 240-unit apartment complex will remain under the same management team. At closing, the project was 96% occupied; the industry average is 89%. "They must be doing something right," Olivieri says.

Sarasota residential developer

buys 22 acres in east Manatee

Sarasota residential developer Filic Chung purchased about 22 acres in Creekwood East Corporate Park east of Interstate 75 near State Road 70 in Bradenton from Creekwood East Corporate Park LLC for $700,000.

"That area is going to be part of the business park in the next few months," Chung says. "We bought property at the pre-plat price. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with it. It doesn't take a genius to see that once the plat is recorded it's going to be worth a lot more money." Chung says the buildable size of the property is probably about a third to half of the total size because of wetlands.

Surgeon buys Pizza Hut,

plans medical complex

Dr. Cary Dunn, a Sarasota dermatologist and skin cancer-treatment surgeon, purchased the Pizza Hut at 1707 Tamiami Trail in Sarasota from the Rodman Family Trust for $1.1 million. Candy Chapman, business manager for Dunn's medical practice, says that he also owns three lots behind the Pizza Hut property. "The property is right across from Sarasota Memorial Hospital," Chapman says. "He is planning to build a medical complex with a surgical center ... in the next couple years." Pizza Hut has signed a short-term lease with Dunn.

Dunn mortgaged the property to Comerica Bank for $832,500.

PGT Industries buys

Technology Drive building

The Venice-based manufacturer PGT Industries Inc. purchased the former Solar City warehouse building from Robert Schabes Jr. and Charles Bentley for $1 million. Julie Heinsman, vice president of marketing for PGT, says the company bought the 17,442-square-foot building at 3419 Technology Drive, Venice, in Laurel Interchange Business Center to expand its manufacturing facilities. PGT Industries owns the buildings on either side of the new property.