Fort Myers investor group buys Punta Gorda farm land

BUYER: OB 4 LLC (managers: Randy Thibaut and Wade Light), Fort Myers
SELLER: James Walter Sheffer, individually and as trustee of the Mary Louise Sheffer Trust and Harian Sheffer Trust, Linda Sheffer and Dawn Roush, individually and trustee of the Richard A. Roush Trust
PROPERTY: a portion of North Jones Loop Road, Punta Gorda
PRICE: $2.01 million
TITLE FIRM ON DEED: Title Guaranty Agency Inc., Fort Myers

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
The investor group OB 4 LLC purchased 157.04 acres on Jones Loop Road east of Interstate 75 for $2.01 million.

The price equated to $12,781 per acre.

The property is currently zoned for agricultural uses. Earlier this year, the buyer sold off the land and lots of Orange Blossom Ranch and Orange Groves to The Ronto Group Inc. for $15.96 million. This property was purchased with some of the proceeds from that sale in a 1031 tax-deferred exchange.

Randy Thibaut, CEO and broker, and William Rollins Jr., senior broker, of Land Solutions Inc. represented the buyer.

“After that big sale, they wanted to reallocate to long-term holds,” Thibaut says. “They're decision was to buy stuff [where development] is far off on the horizon.”

For the immediate future, the buyers plan to lease the property to a cattle ranch operator.

The investor group also recently purchased 303.74 acres at 10624 Peace River St., Arcadia in Desoto County for $3 million. Thibaut and William Rollins represented the buyer in that sale as well.