Avanti buys Palmetto's Corvus site

Avanti buys Palmetto's Corvus site

BUYER: Sanctuary Cove (Bradenton) ASLI VI LLLP (principals: Donald Loeb, Charles Schwartz and Marvin Shapiro), Winter Park

SELLER: Sanctuary Development Partners LLC

PROPERTY: 920 Sanctuary Cove Way and an additional 1.14-acre vacant residential lot, Palmetto

PRICE: $24 million

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, Atlanta

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Winter Park-based investment group Avanti Investment Advisors purchased the 211 acres of vacant land east of Riviera Dunes and south of U.S. 301 in Palmetto for $24 million.

The purchase price equates to $113,744 per acre.

Corvus International had originally planned to develop the property into Sanctuary Cove, a luxury waterfront community with 800 residential units in a mixture of high-rise/mid-rise buildings, 252 single-family home lots and 200,000 square feet of commercial space. Site work for the development started in 2007.

However, with the severity of the residential demand decline, the project didn't happen. Corvus International and its partner Svenson Enterprises were facing a foreclosure suit over $56.4 in loans to Wachovia Bank and other lenders.

“We were able to work out a suitable agreement between our lenders and the buyer in which we avoided the foreclosure action and the lenders received an acceptable sales price to satisfy our financial obligations as the project developers,” Tim Morris, CEO of Corvus International, says in a statement.

“Given all the turmoil in the real estate marketplace these past few years I believe it is a collective win-win for all parties concerned,” he says. “We will continue to act as the developer for the project, and we are excited to be working with our new partners on this exciting opportunity.”