Investor buys Sarasota's Airport Commerce Center

A New York-based investor has acquired the eight-building Airport Commerce Center flex complex in Manatee County for $10.4 million, according to county property records.

ACC Sarasota LAR LLC and ACC Sarasota DAT LLC, groups controlled by investor Lee Rosner, intend to make a series of capital improvements to the 183,283-square-foot property over the next two months.

Rosner says roughly $300,000 will be spent to upgrade parking and other features of the property, which had been owned by a North Miami firm.

Rosner has tapped Newmark Knight Frank's Tampa office to manage the property, which was 93% occupied at the time of the purchase, and Jeff Button of Sarasota commercial brokerage Richardson Kleiber Walter Kleiber Button Inc. to lease the facility.

Button sold the Tellevast Road and 15th Street property in 2006 for $15.25 million.

“We were attracted to Airport Commerce because we could see there was a lot of room for improvement, especially from a management and leasing perspective, and yet it had solid occupancy and decent rents,” Rosner says. “So we liked that we'd also be starting from a good position.

“The location is really good and the unit sizes meet the market demand,” he adds. “Plus, the size of the property was appealing. It met a lot of what we look for for our portfolio.”

Airport Commerce is Rosner's first Florida commercial real estate investment, though he owns other properties in New York and Connecticut, he says.

Button says the new owner is seeking rents in the $9 per square foot range.

“Airport Commerce Center represents a really good deal for any tenant looking in that market as compared with other nearby product, and I think Mr. Rosner is going to be a very pro-active owner,” Button says.