Undisclosed Delaware company buys school district's Checkers property

BUYER: Bradenton 14 LLC, Cincinnati
SELLER: The School Board of Manatee County, Florida
PROPERTY: 115 W. Manatee Ave. and 500 W. First St., Bradenton
PRICE: $1.4 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $75,000, September 2001
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Dye Deitrich Petruff & St. Paul PL, Bradenton

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: An undisclosed Delaware company purchased a 7,500-square-foot former Checkers Drive In restaurant building on 1.36 acre of land for $1.4 million.

The price equated to $1.03 million per acre. That figure is more than the two-year average price per acre for retail land ($893,571) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The two-parcel site is located next to the School District of Manatee County administration building at the corner of Manatee Avenue and First Street West. It was previously used to house the school district's human resources department.

The school district has been looking to sell the Checkers/Owens property since 2010, but those efforts were elevated after a string of financial mistakes left the school district with a several million-dollar shortfall.

After entering into a contract with Cincinnati-based Route 32 Investments LLC to sell it for $2.07 million, the school district offered to vastly reduce the price and allow the company to transfer it to another related entity as long as the deal would close before the end of the district's fiscal year.

Route 32 Investments and Bradenton 14 LLC are both represented by Richard Herndon of law firm of Griffin Fletcher & Herndon LLP in Cincinnati.

Route 32 Investments has suggested it would use the property for a future mixed-use, office and retail development.