Properties get new life

It took a year, but two noteworthy properties formerly under the domain of Sarasota-based Paradise Homes, which filed for bankruptcy in October 2012, have new tenants.

One new tenant is the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, which signed a lease for a 4,000-square-foot former Viking Culinary Center on Lakewood Ranch Main Street in east Manatee County. Paradise Homes, founded by entrepreneur Jim Butler, opened the center in fall 2011. Butler, in previous interviews with the Business Observer, says he sought both a cooking school and a showroom for potential homebuilding clients. He spent more than $1 million in high-end cabinetry, furnishings and appliances.

But the center was closed a little more than a year later. The space ultimately went back to Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty, a subsidiary of Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch. USF signed a lease with Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty Oct. 17. “We like that there will be a connection between Lakewood Ranch and a major university,” Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty Director of Leasing Julia DeCastro told the East County Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer. “It will bring people to the ranch who aren't normally here.”

The other building Butler previously occupied to showcase his firm's homes and design, is on Osprey Avenue, a few miles south of downtown Sarasota. The new tenant there is ShelCidy Custom Remodeling, which has operated out of the space, about 4,000 square feet, since the summer. ShelCidy President Dewey Brannon says the firm, founded in 2001, looked for a showroom for a few years. It found one “all set up” in what Paradise Homes left.

“It was the right opportunity at the right time,” Brannon tells Coffee Talk. “And we decided to jump on it.”

Brannon adds that the move has been a good one for ShelCidy. The 11-employee firm, with a focus on high-end remolding projects, many on Longboat Key, is growing for the first time since before the recession, he says. Annual sales are in the $3 million to $4 million range. Says Brannon: “People are spending money again.”