New investors to renovate LBK's Whitney Plaza

By Business Observer Staff
| 5:44 p.m. December 7, 2012
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

Manatee-Sarasota

BUYER: Whitney Plaza LLC, Bradenton

SELLER: Whitney Plaza JKI LLC

PROPERTY: 6810, 6812, 6858, 6854, 6852, 6850, 6836, 6860, 6848, 6846, 6844, 6842, 6840, 6838, 6856, 6834, 6832, 6830, 6828, 6826, 6824, 6816, 6814, 6822, 6820 and 6818 Gulf of Mexico Drive and 516, 522 and 520 Cedar St., Longboat Key

PRICE: $3.64 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $3.5 million, December 2010

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Snyder Law Group PA, Bradenton

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A new investor group purchased the 35,000-square-foot troubled Whitney Beach Plaza for the $3.64 million existing mortgage principal. The new ownership includes Bradenton real estate and banking attorney Ryan Snyder, former owner Rich Juliani, principal of the Boston-based JKI Investment Capital LLC, and other investors.

Juliani says the transaction was not a sale, but more of an addition of an investment partner and that partner's capital that can help transform the plaza after former partner Brian Kenney departed about six months ago.

The new ownership has announced plans to make a number of improvements to the aging and mostly vacant shopping center on the north tip of Longboat Key.

“We will be injecting about $1 million over the next three to six months,” Snyder says. “We're going to be installing new roofs on all the buildings, improving the parking lots and the exterior faÃ§ade will be renovated. We will start the interior build-out as soon as we get tenants.”

In addition, the new owners plan to open a liquor store on the property in the next six months.

Bradenton-based Kennedy General Contracting Inc. has been retained to spearhead the construction project and Gary Hoyt of Hoyt Architects in Sarasota is working on designs and renderings for the plaza's renovation.

“It needed a lot more money than anyone expected,” Snyder says. “It will probably cost a couple million to get it where it needs to be. Our goal is just to get it leased out. This is not a flipping situation; we plan to have it as a long-term hold.”

— additional reporting by
Kurt Schultheis, correspondent