Sarasota businessman Weiner buys CityPointe land

BUYER: Rosalyne Holdings LLC (BBW Holdings LLC), Pittsburgh, Pa.
SELLER: CRE Holdings LLC
PROPERTY: 735, 805, 849, 881, 913, 1335 and 1340 Florida Ave., 626, 712, 716, 800 and 900 Cocoanut Ave., 1340 Rosemary Lane, 1317 and 1341 Boulevard of the Arts and an additional portion of Florida and Cocoanut avenues and Rosemary and May lanes, Sarasota
PRICE: $4.5 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $6 million, February 2004; $1.15 million, $1 million and $282,500, January 2005; and $3.5 million, $666,000 and $23,000, September 2004
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Shumaker Loop & Kendrick LLP, Sarasota

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: An affiliate of Longboat Enterprises LLC purchased 6.5 acres on Cocoanut Avenue, between the Boulevard of the Arts and 10th Street, for $4.5 million.

The price equated to $692,307 per acre. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per acre for retail land ($893,571) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

Bruce Weiner, the founder and CEO of Longboat Enterprises LLC, owns Florida Classic Car Storage in downtown Sarasota.

John Harshman of Harshman & Co. Inc. who represented the buyer, says a new project for the site is still being planned.

“The zoning there is downtown edge, so that means you can get 25 units an acre and five stories,” he says. “Clearly the vision at this stage is to put apartments there. From market studies we know there's a lot of demand for apartments downtown. But they have a lot of work to do before there will be a project there.”

Harshman says this is the last bank-owned vacant property in the downtown area other than the Sarasota Quay site. The seller, IberiaBank, assumed the loan on the property in 2006 from the now defunct Orion Bank. Iberia foreclosed on the property in 2012, after plans for the mixed-use CityPointe development proposed by Atlanta developer Wayne Morehead collapsed.