'Sellers remorse' unleashes challenge

Tampa area commercial real estate broker Kenny Anderson, like many of his peers, says one of the best parts about the business he's in is clients rarely, if ever, get emotional. Deals are all about numbers.
Then Anderson met Randy White.

The pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa's Westshore district, White presented Anderson, with the Tampa office of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate, a unique career challenge.
The challenge came to a successful conclusion in late August, when The Richman Group, a Greenwich, Conn.-based development firm, bought Without Walls' 13-acre campus for $14.3 million. The Richman Group, with 15 offices nationwide, including Tampa and West Palm Beach, plans to turn the property into a mixed-use project. Early plans include 500 apartments and a retail component.

Anderson and fellow SVN agent Bill Gross worked the listing for more than two years, a tumultuous time for White and the church. “It's definitely been a roller coaster,” Anderson tells Coffee Talk, “but I think everyone eventually got what they wanted.”

The components of the listing, which includes the campus, a church sanctuary and an administration building, all tied up in complicated bankruptcy proceedings, was one piece of the ups and downs. The property also had multiple planning, rezoning and permitting issues to work out.

Then there was White, who brought proverbial tears to the transaction. White helped build Without Walls into a 22,000-member church in the 1990s and early 2000s. He left his position at Without Walls, which once attracted federal government scrutiny for its growth and finances, in 2009 and rejoined it in 2012. Anderson says White knew a sale was imminent, but that didn't dent the difficulties the pastor had in moving on.

“It was very emotional,” Anderson says. “It was very hard (for White) to say it was over.”

That left Anderson with an awkward close. Says Anderson: “I have not dealt with seller's remorse very often.”