The Furniture Warehouse buys land for fifth store

BUYER: MAMSLM Group LLC (principal: Mark Richmond), Sarasota

SELLER: MVP Partners LLC

PROPERTY: 5814 E. 18th St., Ellenton

PRICE: $1 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.8 million, August 2006

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Shumaker Loop & Kendrick LLP, Sarasota

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The Furniture Warehouse purchased 1.88 acres of vacant land near the Ellenton Prime Outlets for $1 million.

The price equated to $531,915 per acre.

The furniture retailer plans to develop the land, located next to an Applebee's, into the company's fifth Furniture Warehouse store. The Sarasota-based furniture chain has other stores in Bradenton, Port Charlotte, Sarasota and Venice.

“We've been looking at this piece for five years,” says Mark Richmond, owner of Furniture Warehouse. “The price came down and we were able to work out very favorable financing.”

The store is scheduled to open between January and March of next year. Palmetto-based Zirkelbach Construction Inc. has been hired to build the 25,000-square-foot store.

The purchase entity MAMSLM Group LLC mortgaged the property to Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida for two mortgages totaling $2.43 million.