A lot of pancakes in $4M IHOP sale

VENICE — An IHOP restaurant building sale is one of the most expensive restaurant acquisitions ever in Sarasota County.

Long Island City, N.Y. real estate investor Steven Newman bought the 4,985-square-foot Venice building for $4.07 million, equal to $817.8 per square foot. The seller is an affiliate of the Janice M. Scullin Living Trust of Ballwin, Mo.

The Sarasota County Property Appraiser lists only nine other full-service restaurant real estate sales for more money and most of them included additional property. Some of the more notable sales include the Chart House Restaurant building and Chart House Shops ($6.2 million), Troyer's Dutch Heritage and retail property ($5.19 million) and Crab & Fin seafood and retail building on St. Armand's Circle ($4.85 million).

Built in 1999, the restaurant is leased to IHOP franchisee Sunshine Restaurant Partners, which owns more than 150 restaurants in Florida and Georgia. The lease, which has 13.5 years remaining, obligates the tenant to pay property taxes and insurance, in addition building maintenance.

The seller's agent, Ted Dowding of Pacific Coast Commercial, attributes the sale to targeting buyers in New York, New Jersey and California that sought to reinvest 1031 tax deferred exchange money. Dowding also created a marketing video of the property and area using video from a drone. The price was helped, Dowding says, by a bidding war between potential buyers.

“You have to paint a picture of the area,” he says. “I talked about how it is in-between two retirement communities. It's also next to a golf course. I had an offer from the buyer in three days of marketing it.”

Barry Seidel, president and founder of Sarasota-based American Property Group, attributed much of the current high demand for single-tenant buildings to the lack of available properties for 1031 buyers.

“People are really desperate right now,” Seidel says. “They have 1031 money that they need to place and nothing to buy.”

The buyer's agent for the sale was James Bilski, managing director of Alliance Real Estate Corp. in New York City.