Canada's Terracap Group buys Bee Ridge development site

BUYER: Terracap BR Partners LP (principal: Larry Krauss), Toronto, Ontario

SELLER: Cadence Bank NA

PROPERTY: 6551 Bee Ridge Road and 5700 Mauna Loa Blvd., Sarasota

PRICE: $3.2 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $3 million, April 2010

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Hankin Persson Davis McClenathen & Darnell, Sarasota

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A sub-company of Toronto, Ontario-based Terracap Group purchased a 40.74-acre master-planned property on both sides of Mauna Loa Boulevard north of Bee
Ridge Road for $3.2 million.

The price equated to $78,547 per acre.

The property, east of Interstate 75, wraps around the existing 40-bed HealthSouth Ridgelake Hospital.

Terracap Group Chief Operating Officer Wayne Humphries says the Canadian real estate firm has been working to acquire the property for the past two years. The purchase was delayed after the real estate slow down scuttled the former developer's plans for the property. Eventually, the lender, Cadence Bank NA, took back the property.

“I think there are tremendous opportunities in a place like Sarasota,” Humphries says. “The fact that other companies are not taking advantage of what we see mystifies me. It's not often we see an opportunity like this site. [We liked] the cost per acre and its great location. There's also a fair bit of synergy in that area.”

The new ownership considers the property a medium- to long-term investment, according to Humphries. It is currently putting together a multi-phase development plan for the site with a mixture of office, light industrial, retail and assisted-living uses.

Terracap Group companies own land in Fort Myers, a medical office building in Orlando, multiple residential projects in Dallas and several properties in Kansas City and Canada.
Mark Eilers with the Grubb & Ellis Land Group in Tampa represented the seller.