Car washes, drug stores top week’s property sales

Naples/Fort Myers

Going to be a good year: Seagate Development Group has big plans for 2023. The Fort Myers company recently released a laundry list of projects scheduled to be completed or started this year. Among these are the completion by the end of the first quarter of the 60,000-square-foot warehouse and office it is building for American Builders & Contractors Supply Co. near the Punta Gorda Airport; the opening “within weeks” of Theory Design’s, Seagate’s interior design firm, Boca Grande store, its first retail location; and this summer it will unveil plans for its 200-acre custom home community in Bonita Springs. Seagate, founded in 2015, says it has “secured more than $1 billion in projects under development” within the past year.

Tampa/St. Petersburg

Drugstore dealings: The Walgreen Co.’s real estate staff has been busy. Over the past several weeks the drug store chain has rid itself of four properties in and around Tampa Bay, totaling nearly $22 million in sales. The properties sold were in Brandon, Sun City Center, Zephyrhills and St. Petersburg. Why the company sold off so many locations isn’t clear since the chain’s public relations department has refused several requests for comments. What we do know is that according to Florida’s Division of Corporations Commission’s website, the buyer for three of the properties — Brandon, Zephyrhills and St. Petersburg — has ties to the Chicago real estate investment firm Oak Street Real Estate Capital. The buyer’s LLC is named Project Capricorn Fund V and, according to county property records, shares a Chicago address with Oak Street. The LLC also owns a Walgreens in Lutz and one in Fort Myers. In 2021, the Business Observer reported Oak Street spent $30 million on five other Walgreens locations in Lee, Manatee, Pasco and Pinellas counties. The buyer of the fourth property that just sold is National Retail Properties based in Orlando.

They build it, you rent it: Arizona-based general contractor Mosaic is getting into the build-to-rent business in Florida. The company has opened an office in Tampa and plans to work in the build-to-rent sector, which it says offers a solid growth opportunity because of the demand for rental housing in the Florida. This is the 11th state the Mosaic is doing business in. The plan is for it to work on build-to-rent projects with local developers and contractors, company officials say. To run its Florida operations, it has hired Chase Pattillo, former director of Florida land acquisitions for homebuilder D.R. Horton and managing director of CBRE’s Tampa Office.

Food for the masses: Construction began last week on Feeding Tampa Bay’s new 210,463-square-foot headquarters near the Port of Tampa. Work is expected last until next year. When complete, the facility will include 41,000 square feet of cold storage warehouse space, an 11,000-square-foot kitchen, offices and a mezzanine level. The plan is for the kitchen to produce up to 6,000 meals per day and to serve as a classroom for teaching culinary skills.

Sarasota/Manatee

Live where you shop: A nearly eight-acre piece of property next to Manatee County’s Ellenton Premium Outlets has sold for $5.5 million. The buyer, a joint venture between Defined Companies and Nadeb Investment Group, intends to build a four-story, mid-rise style apartment community with 235 luxury units. The property, 5950 Factory Shops Blvd., was originally approved for retail and commercial with the idea that a movie theater or hotel would be built there. But the new owners went in a different direction. As for the construction schedule, the company is “optimistic for a Q3 start date, with first deliveries taking place 14 months thereafter, and project completion being achieved at 18 months.” Defined is a Fort Lauderdale multifamily developer and Nadeb is a Wellington real estate investment firm. 

Keeping it clean: Two Coastal Express Car Washes in Manatee County have sold. The car washes, one at 4271 State Road 64 and the other at 4630 53rd Ave. E., brought a combined $13.6 million. Interestingly, the two were owned by separate companies and sold to separate buyers yet both appear on Coastal’s website. Those are not the only car washes to change hands recently. In & Out Express Carwash in Ruskin sold for $5.4 million to Darlington Investment Group, a Beverly Hills, California firm. If you’re wondering why so much money is being spent on car washes, a market study from Grand View Research found  washing cars was a $14.67 billion industry in 2021.

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