German investor group buys former Tabernacle building

BUYER: Sunbuild Phase I LP (principal: Anton Philipp), Key Biscayne

SELLER: Victoria Love Bartholomew

PROPERTY: 715 E. Bird St., Tampa

PRICE: $1.55 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.25 million, March 2003

TITLE FIRM ON DEED: Fidelity National Title of Florida Inc., Brandon

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A German investment group, managed in Florida by financial adviser Anton Philipp of Key Biscayne, purchased the 57,219-square-foot former Tampa Bay Tabernacle building for $1.55 million.

The price equated to $27 per square foot.

The four-story church building, which previously served as a bank, has sat vacant for several years. In 2010, the building's lender, Victoria Love Bartholomew, took ownership of it through a foreclosure from the church and the Corbin family.

Steven Silverman of Tampa Commercial Real Estate handled the transaction.

“The property was in pretty poor shape,” Silverman says. “It needs a ton of work. The new owners plan to come in and renovate it on a floor-by-floor basis. The first floor is going to stay a church, which worked out really well because they don't need any of the parking during the week.”

Among a number of other improvements, the first floor needs a new air-conditioning system, interior upgrades, plumbing repairs and possible roofing work.

Working in its favor, Silverman says, was its location, principally its visibility from and accessibility to Intestate 275 and the structure of the building.

“There's a lot of upside potential in renovating the building,” Silverman says. “If you figure you can't build a building for $200 a square foot, at 60,000 square feet that's nearly $12 million.”

Philipp plans to market the building to artists. He says the investment group expects to acquire other buildings along the Gulf Coast in the near future because of the high likelihood for improvement in the market over the next decade or two.

The purchase entity Sunbuild Phase I LP mortgaged the property to the seller for $1.1 million and to HLI Investments and Funding - Fund 1 LLC for $350,000.