Real Estate Briefs (Sara/Mana edition)

Real Estate Briefs (Sara/Mana edition)

Wood Street Investors buy

foreclosed Wood Street property

Wood Street Investors LLC purchased two office buildings, located on four acres at 2055 Wood St. in Sarasota, from SASCO 1996-CFL Sarasota Office LLC for $4.1 million. "We bought it because of the upside," says N.J. Olivieri, president of Sarasota-based Horizon Mortgage Corp. and a managing member of the investment group. "The 27,000-square-foot buildings are behind McDonald's (on U.S. 301). The group that previously owned it was absentee owners. They let it deteriorate. We bought it from LaSalle Bank out of foreclosure."

According to Olivieri, the two buildings were a great opportunity. In 1996, Wood Street Ltd. purchased the two facilities from Ronald Spector for $6.46 million. The Sarasota property appraiser's office appraised the properties' just market value midway through 2003 at $5.78 million. "We are going to clean it up, add signage and redo the landscaping," Olivieri says. "We will also work on the entrance way. They can be very attractive buildings; they just need a lot of TLC. The buildings were built in the '80s, and they need to be brought into 2000. We are going to make these class-A properties."

In addition, the property also has about 20,000 square feet of vacant land for construction of an additional structure.

The new owners mortgaged the property to Bank of Commerce for $3.7 million.

AMF Bowling Centers

sold to iStar Financial

All three of the local AMF Bowling Center locations in the two-county area have been sold to iStar Financial Inc., a New York-based real estate company, for about $5 million. "This was part of our merger with a subsidiary of Code Hennessy (& Simmons LLC)," says Merrell Wreden, vice president of corporate communications for Richmond, Va.-based AMF Bowling Worldwide Inc. "The deal actually involves 180 centers nationwide. It was a sale with a long-term lease back. We decided to do this instead of borrowing money in the marketplace. There will not be any change in operations. Our initial lease is for 20 years, and we have a contracted extension for another 50 years."

AMF Bowling Centers are located at 4208 Cortez Road in Bradenton, 7221 S. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota and 1100 U.S. 41 By-Pass S. in Venice.

AutoNation finishes

Glauser Mercedes purchase

Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation Inc. has closed on its purchase of the Glauser Mercedes-Benz dealership in Sarasota, from S.J. Glauser for $10.5 million. Glauser's facility is the sole Mercedes-Benz dealership in Sarasota. AutoNation, the nation's largest retailer of automobiles, now owns and operates 65 franchises in Florida, including five Mercedes-Benz franchises.

Glauser Mercedes-Benz's 2003 revenues were about $150 million on sales of nearly 1,700 new vehicles and 550 used vehicles.

The dealership is also an authorized Maybach retailer, with a Maybach Studio dedicated exclusively to the Maybach luxury vehicle.

Michael Maroone, AutoNation's president and chief operating officer, says in a press release, "The Glauser Mercedes-Benz acquisition furthers our strategy of expanding our luxury vehicle business.

Attorneys Kunkel, Hament buy

space in Orange Centre

Dan and John Hament, partners in the Sarasota law firm of Kunkel, Miller & Hament, purchased three office units in the Orange Professional Centre, 235 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota, from OFCO LLP for $1.4 million. In the interim, the partners plan to lease out 1,500 square feet of the 4,500-square-foot space in the Orange Professional Centre.

"We have been in the SouthTrust Bank Building (1800 Second St., Suite 970) for about 10 years," Kunkel says. "We will be occupying about 3,000 square feet, which is still considerably more than we had (1,500 square feet). We felt it was a good price and that it would make a nice investment. We knew we wanted something in the downtown core ... and it was the right size."

Kunkel, Miller & Hament is a labor and employment law firm, which only represents management.

Mark Cahill, Ken Chlebina

plan four industrial buildings

Mark Cahill and Ken Chlebina filed site plans to develop four 7,500-square-foot industrial buildings in the 7200 block of 24th Court South in Centre Park. "We will likely develop all four buildings at the same time," Chlebina says. The units, being built speculatively, will likely start at $9 a square foot triple net. They are being listed by Mike Spore of Bosshardt Realty Services Inc.

Etc...

× Northern Trust has relocated the Bradenton Trust and Investment Office to 1001 Third Avenue West, Suite 150 in Bradenton. Diane Key, vice president/trust administrative officer and David Webb, vice president/trust investment officer, will work directly from the new Bradenton Office.

× Allan and Barbara Raveling purchased lots 53 and 54 on Paul Morris Drive in Morris Industrial Park in Englewood for $196,000. Christine Walter, of Richardson Kleiber Walter, handled the sale.

× Xtreme Accessories leased 4,680 square feet of warehouse space at 710 Commerce Drive, units 103 and 104 in Venice from A&M Properties. Jim Walter, of Richardson Kleiber Walter, handled the transaction.

× Hopper Inc. leased 5,300 square feet in an office/warehouse building at 530 Paul Morris Drive in Morris Industrial Park in Englewood from David and Catherine Arp. Christine Walter, of Richardson Kleiber Walter, represented the tenant, and Bob Novack, of Merritt Realty Resources Corp., represented the landlord.

× The Sarasota office of the Institute for International Research has relocated from the downtown area to an 18,000-square-foot leased space on the first floor of one of the Arthur Andersen buildings.