Fuccillo Automotive Group plans Charlotte Kia dealership

BUYER: WBF Florida Properties III LLC (principal: William Fuccillo), Cape Coral
SELLER: Eagle FL 1 SPE LLC
PROPERTY: 202 Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte
PRICE: $3.1 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $15.68 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Anthony J. Gargano Esq., Fort Myers

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Fuccillo Automotive Group purchased 77 acres of commercial land on U.S. 41 and South Cranberry Boulevard for $3.1 million.

The price equated to $40,260 per acre. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per acre for retail space ($746,593) in Southwest Florida, according to the CoStar Group.

Prominent auto dealer Billy Fuccillo has announced plans to develop a Kia dealership on the property, which is just south of North Port and Sarasota County. Fuccillo and his company originally expected to develop the dealership on 7.4 acres at U.S. 41 and Ursula Avenue, but changed their plans in favor of the significantly larger location.

The new dealership is expected to occupy 25 of the 77 acres.

Andrew DeSalvo and Matt Stepan of Premier Commercial Inc. represented the seller, an affiliate of Branch Banking & Trust Co.

“It helped that he was a user,” Stepan says. “Most of the buyers that were looking at the property were developers that were looking to buy it contingent on being able to put together a deal with a big-box retailer. Most of the big boxes that were interested in the area were slow to commit, because there's still a lot of empty homes in that area and there's a lot of development in northern Port Charlotte.”

But for Fuccillo, Stepan says, the location was ideal. It opened up the new franchise to traffic from both Charlotte and Sarasota counties.