Manatee Fruit Co. transfers $40M in land

BUYER: Lake Flores I LLC (manager: Whiting Preston), Palmetto
SELLER: Manatee Fruit Co.
PROPERTY: a 1,200-acre portion of land bordering El Conquistador Parkway and 53rd Avenue West and south of Cortez Road, Bradenton
PRICE: $24.23 million

BUYER: Pen Bay I LLC (manager: Whiting Preston), Palmetto
PROPERTY: a 346-acre portion of land bordering El Conquistador Parkway and 53rd Avenue West and south of Cortez Road, Bradenton
PRICE: $8.5 million

BUYER: Lake Flores East LLC (manager: Whiting Preston), Palmetto
PROPERTY: a 94.26-acre portion of land bordering El Conquistador Parkway and 53rd Avenue West and south of Cortez Road, Bradenton
PRICE: $6.18 million
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Grimes Goebel Grimes Hawkins Gladfelter & Galvano PL, Bradenton

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
As part of its plan to create a master-planned, mixed-use community, farming company Manatee Fruit Co. transferred 1,640 acres in western Manatee County to three entities it owns for a total of $40.18 million.

The price equated to $24,495 per acre.

Manatee Fruit Co. has announced plans to develop much of that farmland into Lake Flores, a community of up to 6,500 residences — in a mixture of single-family homes, condominiums and apartments — 3 million square feet of retail and office space and two hotels.

In a written statement sent to the Business Observer, the firm says the land swap was part of an internal restructuring. The transfer, it says, does not change the company's future plans for development on these properties.

“This restructuring was an internal adjustment designed to enable our corporate operations to run more effectively,” Whiting Preston, president of Manatee Fruit Co., says in the statement.

The three affiliates, Lake Flores I LLC, Lake Flores East LLC and Pen Bay I LLC, mortgaged the land back to Manatee Fruit Co. for a combined $38.17 million.