Putting a good floor forward

BUYER: Goodwill Industries-Manasota Inc., Bradenton
SELLER: Goodman Family Limited Partnership
PROPERTY: 2150, 2220 and 2240 Whitfield Industrial Way, Sarasota
PRICE: $1.6 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $3.6 million , August 2005
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Blalock Walters PA, Bradenton

Goodwill Industries-Manasota Inc. was looking for a building to expand its logistics and recycling operations to 30,000 square feet or maybe a little more. Instead, it ended up buying the nearly 80,680-square-foot former Teltronics manufacturing facility for $1.6 million. This sudden space windfall primarily came down to the property's problematic second floor.

The 4.8-acre site, which contains a two-story, 73,180-square-foot main manufacturing building and a 7,500 square-foot out-building, has sat vacant since 2009, when the technology manufacturer relocated to Palmetto. Ian Black of Ian Black Real Estate, who took over the listing roughly 2.5 years ago, says his team knew early on that it had to market the property beyond the manufacturing industry.

“There was simply no activity,” he says.

So the firm widened its field of buyers to other industrial uses and distributors. But the low demand persisted, which Black attributes largely to the second floor.

“If it had been a single-story building this would have gone a lot earlier,” he says. “Nobody could figure out what to do with that second floor. Typically in that area, the demand is 99% for first floor space.”

Because of the layout of the building, leasing the top floor to a separate tenant wasn't practical, which left the brokerage searching for the rare tenant that needed or could put up with both floors.

A second problem the building faced was its first floor, half the building's space at about 36,000 square feet, was generally too small for medium-sized distribution businesses and too big for small users. But one of the buyers it did fit was Goodwill.

Bob Rosinsky, president and CEO at Goodwill Manasota, says the nonprofit strongly needed to replace its existing logistics space at 7501 15th St. E., Sarasota.

“That building was built in the early '70s and only had between 10,000 and 15,000 square feet available to use,” Rosinsky says. “We really outgrew that property 10 years ago.”

Goodwill Manasota also wanted a larger place to house its recycling operations. The nonprofit removes and sorts recyclable materials from unneeded/unsold donations and sells them to recyclers.

Eventually, Black and his team, which included Steve Horn and Melissa Harris, connected with Goodwill Manasota's real estate team.

Rosinsky says his first impression was that the buildings were very well maintained for being unoccupied for several years. He also felt that the main building's open bottom floor could accommodate both of Goodwill Manasota's needs.

Following the purchase, the nonprofit has hired Bradenton's NDC Construction Co. to make several renovations to the building, including improvements to the roof and air conditioner and adding three new loading docks. Goodwill Manasota has budgeted the entire project at $4 million and expects to have 100 workers using the facility daily by early December.

For the seemingly low sales price, of $20 a square foot, Black says it makes more sense given that the building's primary asset was its bottom level space. Looking at just that square footage, the sale is closer to $40 per square foot.

The one thing the sale didn't answer was the future of the building's second floor. Rosinsky says Goodwill Manasota has no long-term plans for it.

“We're thinking about demolishing a lot of the office space on the second floor,” he says. “That would open it up a little bit, which would allow us to keep our options open. We plan to live in the building for a year to a year and a half to see how we like it.”

A picture of the building published with the original version of this story was an incorrect photo.