Brookline adds to Naples assemblage with $6 million deal

A Clearwater-based company with plans for a major retail development in downtown Naples has added to its assemblage with a $6 million purchase, Collier County property records show.

TBC 975 6th Avenue LLC, an entity controlled by Brookline Development Co. LLC, acquired 975 Sixth Ave. South late last month.

The property currently contains a two-story, 10,764-square-foot office building above parking known as the Boran-Martin Building, which was completed in 1987, records indicate.

It had since January 2013 been owned by a group led by an Ashland, Ky.-based oncologist, Dr. Jeffrey Lopez. His group bought the property for $2.1 million, according to county records.

The deal brought to at least $36 million the amount Brookline has spent to buy more than six acres in downtown Naples to date.

The company has received rezoning and subsequent approvals for a three-story development in excess of 50,000 square feet. The project is expected to contain a collection of restaurants, apparel stores, a fitness purveyor and other experiential uses.

“That corner is pretty important to the overall, because it rounds out the entire assemblage,” says Rob Carroll, an Investment Properties Corp. agent who negotiated the Boran-Martin transaction on behalf of Brookline. “With the setback it provides, it just made a lot of sense.”

Brookline partnerships began buying downtown Naples tracts, including the shuttered St. George and Dragon restaurant, in 2017.

Brookline’s assemblage, one of the largest executed in downtown Naples in the past decade, is expected eventually to connect the city’s Tin City complex to its popular Fifth Avenue tourist center.

“We’ve received a lot of good feedback,” says Carroll, who is working with IPC Partner David Stevens on the Brookline project. “We have a number of interested users, and everyone we’ve spoken to says they believe the conceptual plans look great.”

Carroll adds that Brookline’s ultimate development may be considerably larger than 50,000 square feet, though he declined to provide specifics.

“The next step is for them to finalize their plans, which they’re working on now, and then they’ll be required to get site plan approval and go before the Development Review Board and receive their approval, as well,” Carroll says.

Since its formation nearly two decades ago, Brookline — a company led by William B. Yeomans Sr. and William B. Yeomans Jr. — has developed more than 3.0 million square feet of space in eight states and valued in excess of $750 million.