Sarasota manufacturer Octex buys building for expansion

BUYER: Octex Holdings LLC (principal: James Westman), Sarasota

SELLER: J&S Weaver Enterprises Inc.

PROPERTY: 901 Sarasota Center Blvd., Sarasota

PRICE: $1.9 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $154,200, August 1998

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Icard Merrill Cullis Timm Furen & Ginsburg PA, Lakewood Ranch

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Octex LLC purchased its 33,116-square-foot manufacturing building for $1.9 million.

The price equated to $57 per square foot. Octex, which previously leased the building, purchased it with plans to develop a 25,910-square-foot addition, says Dan Mallon, chief financial officer at Octex.

The company, which manufactures plastic parts using injection molding, wants to create additional manufacturing and warehouse space that would include a laboratory and a specialized cleanroom for creating certain plastic medical products. Octex also plans to remodel its existing facility once the shell of the addition is completed.

“A big part of this is growing demand,” Mallon says. “There are many more items being built out of plastic. There's also the growth of our existing clients.”

Sarasota-based DooleyMack Constructors LLC has been hired as the project's general contractor and The Schimberg Group is its architect.

Construction on the $5 million expansion is scheduled to start in mid-August for a January completion. Much of the project's costs comes from the purchase of new equipment and specialized injection-molding machines.

The company received a $200,000 performance-based incentive grant from Sarasota County government based on its commitment to add 80 jobs over the next five years.

Octex LLC mortgaged the building to Branch Banking and Trust for $750,000.