Nokomis real estate investors buy Venice Avenue, Main St. buildings

BUYER: Smulron LLC (Robert Smullin and Cheryl Giffin), Nokomis
SELLER: Sarall Ltd.
PROPERTY: 121, 229, 223 and 233 W. Venice Ave., Venice
PRICE: $4.58 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $2 million, May 2011 and $875,000, September 2006

SELLER: Sarall II LLC
PROPERTY: 1540 and 1544 Main St., Sarasota and 125 and 243 W. Venice Ave., Venice
PRICE: $3 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.34 million and $800,000, March 2008 and $1.27 million, December 2011
TITLE FIRM ON DEED: Riddell Title & Escrow LLC, Sarasota

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A company led by Robert Smullin and Cheryl Giffin of Nokomis purchased seven commercial buildings on Venice Avenue and a two-unit retail storefront on Sarasota's Main Street for $7.58 million.

The price equated to $179 per square foot. That figure is higher than the two-year average price per square foot for retail space ($146) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The Venice Avenue properties included the El Patio Hotel — a 21,000-square-foot apartment building with ground-level retail — the 4,151-square-foot Made in Italy restaurant, 1,760-square-foot sushi restaurant Bushido, 1,190-square-foot Nana's toy store, 2,262-square-foot Shrode Jewelry store, 1,628-square-foot Cleopatra's Bath and Body Boutique store and the 3,285-square-foot Captain's Landing clothing store. The buildings, which were 100% occupied, were built from 1926 to 1960.

Bohemian Bliss Boutique and Black Bird Home Gallery share the 7,000-square-foot Main Street building.

Michele Fuller of Ian Black Real Estate represented the seller and Barry Seidel of American Property Group of Sarasota Inc. represented the buyer.

The buyers, using the name of Bersam Development Co., recently sold a 14,250-square-foot retail strip center at 3908 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota to CMA Realty LLC for $3.7 million (see the Aug. 23-29 issue).

According to Seidel, the Venice Avenue and Main Street purchases were done as part of 1031 tax-deferred exchange. He says that after owning the South Trail property for years, the owners were looking to invest in something a little different.

The purchase entity mortgaged the property to First America Bank for $3.79 million.