Commercial Real Estate

Owner pulls back on Ritz sale
Slab LLC, the Kansas-based owner of the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, has had a change of heart about parting with the luxury resort and taken it off the market.

“The hotel and the resort are performing well, and as a result they're not for sale at this time,” says Robert Johnson, an attorney who represents Slab.

Earlier this year, Slab — a partnership of brothers Robert and Dan Buford and their children — retained brokerage firm JLL to help sell the property, which includes a 266-room hotel and 130 adjacent condominiums; a Lido Key beach club; and an 18-hole golf course and club near Lakewood Ranch.

In July, Slab injected $4.7 million into the hotel to upgrade its lobby, club level, ballroom and guest rooms — the largest improvements in the resort's 15-year history.

It was widely expected the recently completed renovations would precede a sale.

Instead, Slab is in talks to sell a slice of undeveloped hotel land to Palm Beach-based Kolter Group, developer of the Vue Sarasota Bay hotel and condo tower and the likely future developer of the Pineapple Square residential and retail project in downtown Sarasota.

“Nothing is definitive as yet, but there have been discussions with Kolter about developing a residential project on the site,” Johnson says. “It would involve a purchase by Kolter of the property in question.”

Osprey taps Hellstrom for leasing
Osprey Real Estate Services, a Michigan-based company that owns office buildings in Sarasota, Tampa and St. Petersburg, has promoted Lori Hellstrom to oversee leasing for its 1.6 million-square-foot portfolio in the three cities.

Hellstrom, who joined Osprey in 2009, had been in charge of leasing in Sarasota, where the company owns the Sarasota City Center downtown; the Live Oak Business Center, the Cattleridge Corporate and Business centers in Sarasota County; and the 9000 Town Center Parkway project, in Bradenton.

In Tampa and St. Petersburg, Hellstorm will oversee the Carillon Office Center; the Westlake Corporate Center I and II; Orion Center; and Lakeview at Hidden River, among other assets.

Hellstrom's elevation comes roughly a month after long-time Osprey managing partner Wendy Giffin jumped to Cushman & Wakefield's Tampa office to be a director in the brokerage giant's Florida investor services team.