Bruising Broker

Bruising Broker

The competitive field of commercial real estate in Greater Sarasota can now count a true fighter among its ranks: Former national boxing writer - and long-ago retired amateur boxer - Joe Bruno.

In June, after a few years with RE/MAX and Century 21, Bruno opened Gulf Gate Realty, his own real estate firm specializing in selling restaurants and bars. Like dozens of other Realtors and agents along the Gulf Coast, Bruno comes to real estate from another profession. But what separates Bruno from the former teachers, bankers and accountants is, well, Bruno himself.

Bruno, 59, oozes transplanted New Yorker, from the shiny silver NY Yankees emblem that hangs on his convertible's front license plate, to his nasal accent, straight out of Brooklyn. Wearing New York on his sleeve did, however, cost Bruno one his first jobs in Sarasota: In 1997, soon after moving to the Gulf Coast with his second wife, he hosted a sports show on local radio station WQSA 1220. The gig was short lived, as several callers and listeners complained, in not-so subtle language, that they didn't appreciate Bruno's all New York, all the time attitude.

No problem. Not ready to officially retire, the animated and restless Bruno went back to work, writing. He had penned hundreds of stories and columns about boxing for several magazines and newspapers for 25 years in New York. In Sarasota, Bruno wrote golf course reviews and even authored a few screenplays and novels - one book, Angel of Death, was published - although he quickly learned he wasn't "the next coming of Mario Puzo."

Real estate was his next fallback. "I felt like I was useless," he says. "All my life I had made money." Besides sports journalism, Bruno, a medal-winning Vietnam War veteran, had also owned his own businesses in New York, including a sports bar and Bruno's Parking Lot and Bruno's Limousine Service.

He settled on brokering bars and restaurants, selling what he knows. Over the last three years, mostly with RE/MAX, Bruno has brokered deals for about a dozen restaurants, including the Baystreet Wine Bar in Osprey, Terra Nossa in Sarasota and Mama Onesti's in Bradenton. In addition to his own brokerage firm, Bruno now has his own Web site where he writes journal entries about restaurants in the Sarasota area (www.sarasotabarsandrestaurants.blogspot.com).

As Bruno grows into his new gig, he's learning a lesson many new Realtors and agents struggle with: When to say "no" in the best interests of the business. He's begun turning down listings - some that don't fit his criteria and others where owners have over-hyped expectations of what they can get.

-Mark Gordon

Bruno's Boxing Bits

Before Joe Bruno began selling commercial real estate, primarily restaurants in Sarasota and Manatee counties, he was a national boxing writer. Some highlights of his career:

•Worked as a boxing columnist for the New York Tribune, served as associate editor for Boxing Illustrated and was a contributor to Ring Magazine;

•Served as vice president of the Boxing Writers of America and won several boxing writing awards;

•Wrote a story on Mike Tyson for Penthouse magazine;

•Occasionally wrote about Don King, who once threatened to sue Bruno over allegedly negative columns;

•Interviewed and watched many famous boxers of the '70s and '80s, including Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard, Hector "Macho" Camacho, Roberto "No Mas" Duran and Gerry Cooney. Bruno met Muhammad Ali once at a sports dinner.