Medallion Home buys land in Heritage Harbour

BUYER: Upper Manatee 288 LLC (principals: Carlos Beruff, Charles Tokarz, Peter Logan and Timothy Knowles), Bradenton
SELLER: Eagle FL V SPE LLC
PROPERTY: 112, 122, 132, 142 152, 320 and 300 N.E. Upper Manatee River Road, Bradenton
PRICE: $3.7 million

BUYER: Manatee Land Investors LLC (principals: Carlos Beruff, Charles Tokarz, Peter Logan and Timothy Knowles), Bradenton
SELLER: Eagle FL V SPE LLC
PRICE: $1 million

PREVIOUS PRICE FOR BOTH: $8.66 million, January 2005
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Shuffield Lowman & Wilson PA, Orlando

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Affiliates of Bradenton-based homebuilder Medallion Home purchased 289 undeveloped acres of the Heritage Harbour community for $4.7 million.

The price equated to $16,263 per acre.

The property on Upper Manatee River Road, and the former home of Moore's Diary, was acquired for eventual residential development, according to Medallion Home president Carlos Beruff.

“It's in a good location and has good prospects for the future,” Beruff says. “If the price wasn't attractive we wouldn't have bought it. But we have no immediate plans for it. We will likely wait on it for a couple years.”

Beruff says his staff is currently reviewing the property's entitlements.

Heritage Harbour's original developer, Lennar Corp., in early 2008 had planned to add the site to the Heritage Harbour community, extending the existing Stoneybrook subdivision east to Upper Manatee River Road.

A company, owned by Maitland-based attorney Ronald Black, purchased the land for $8.7 million in early 2005 and lost it to foreclosure in June. An affiliate of BB&T Corp., Eagle FL V SPE LLC, was the seller in the transaction.

“I think we're delivering a product right now that competes with foreclosures,” says Beruff. “Our margins are very tight, but it allows to create enough volume to keep a lot of people employed.”

The purchase entities Upper Manatee 288 LLC and Manatee Land Investors LLC mortgaged the property to Best Prize Property LLC for $4.8 million.

— additional reporting by Pam Eubanks, correspondent