Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority buys Tallevast land

BUYER: Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority, Sarasota
SELLER: Robert Johnson as personal representative of the estate of Heidi H. Boothe
PROPERTY: 2105 Tallevast Road and additional land, Sarasota
PRICE: $1.8 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Robert W. Browning Jr. PA, Sarasota

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority purchased 76 acres north of Tallevast Road and west of U.S. 301 for $1.8 million.

The price equated to $23,684 per acre.

A portion of the land sits in the approach to the airport's Crosswind Runway (422). The property is also close to a 38-acre site at Tallevast and U.S. 301 that Manatee County purchased to develop a new bus depot facility.

“We got a very good deal on it,” says Fredrick Piccolo, president and CEO of Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. “[Manatee County] paid about $120,000 an acre for their section. A lot of that difference came from the efforts of one of our commissioners, Carlos Beruff. He did the negotiating. In part this was to protect that approach and keep people from developing on it, and we also felt that it was such a good deal for the land we felt we could land bank it.”

The airport has no other immediate plans on the horizon for the land, Piccolo says.