News & Notes

Atlanta firm pays $10.5M, borrows $38.5M to build Fort Myers apartments

In the week's top commercial real estate news, a Bradenton property owner gets a loan, a Tampa office park gets a leasing agent, and a developer gets some help to market its Pasco project.


  • By Louis Llovio
  • | 5:00 a.m. August 4, 2024
  • | 2 Free Articles Remaining!
Two Atlanta developers have started work on a new 265-unit apartment complex in Fort Myers.
Two Atlanta developers have started work on a new 265-unit apartment complex in Fort Myers.
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Naples/Fort Myers/Charlotte 

Land grab: A pair of Atlanta developers are getting into the multifamily business in Fort Myers. The Brook Farm Group and Rail Gauge Partners has begun construction on a 265-unit apartment community on an 8.5-acre parcel on U.S. Highway 41 and Trailwinds Drive. The property is directly next to the Palm Pointe Shoppes retail center. The community, The Sinclair at Palm Pointe, will be made up of two four-story buildings with one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging in size from 650 square feet to 1,369 square feet. It will also have a 3,800-square-foot clubhouse, two-level fitness center and about 2,200 square feet of coworking space. The first units are expected to be complete in early 2026. Brook Farm and Rail Gauge did not disclose what the entities paid for the property or how much was received in financing to build the community. But according to Lee County property records, Brook Farm, using an LLC, paid $10.5 million for the land. A copy of the deed in court records shows it closed on the deal July 11. Records also show that the LLC, which in the state’s Division of Corporations database and on the official documents shares Brook Farm’s address, secured a $38.5 million mortgage on the same day. The previous owner paid $3.4 million for the property. 


Tampa/St. Petersburg/Pasco/Polk

NetPark Tampa Bay has been sold to a New Jersey investor.
Image via NetParkTampaBay.net

Office max: CBRE has been picked to lease and manage NetPark Tampa Bay. The nearly 1 million-square-foot office park, the largest in the region, is at 5701 E. Hillsborough Ave. on the site of the former East Lake Square Mall. CBRE was chosen to represent the property by Saxum Real Estate Partners, the New Jersey-based real estate investment firm that recently paid $45 million for the park. The firm is no stranger to NetPark. It represented the seller Bluett Capital Realty when Saxum picked it up. At the time of the sale, the firm said NetPark was 60% occupied with a tenant roster that includes public and private sector firms with spaces ranging from 1,250 square feet to just under 150,000 square feet. The two-story office park, which opened in 1999, sits on a 98.71-acre site and includes a fitness facility, a dining hall, a conference center and auditorium, a day care facility and a HART bus transfer station. CBRE’s Roxanne Kemph, Kelley Matheson and Tom Quinlan will be marketing the property while Moscha Koronias of CBRE Property Management will lead the team managing it.

Ready to go: Pasco County’s Economic Development Council is helping a developer market a 611-acre industrial site to potential tenants. The property, known as the Double Branch Super Park, is at State Route 52 and Interstate 75 and features freeway frontage, two signaled intersections and interior road networks. It is owned by the Texas developer Columnar. According to an EDC spokesperson, the property is participating in the Pasco Ready Sites Program, which is used to market properties as industrial development ready sites to companies looking to locate or expand in county. It’s record, thus far, includes bringing Brazilian food producer Bauducco’s purchase at the Zephyrhills Airport Industrial Park and Amazon’s purchase at Eagle Industrial Park. This 611-acre site, the spokesperson says, is the first site included in the program that is owned by a developer, however. Columnar has been preparing the property by building access roads to the site as well as water, sewer, electric, gas and telecom lines, along with plans to expand those. 


Sarasota/Manatee

Center Point Medical Center is at 6600 University Parkway in Lakewood Ranch.
Courtesy image

Medical payment: The Center Point Medical Center, a medical office building in Lakewood Ranch, has sold for $31.8 million. The seller was an LLC named Casto Center Point Phase II. Casto is a prolific Lakewood Ranch-based real estate developer in the region, having built Center Point at Waterside, among several other mixed-use projects. Sarasota County records show it paid $2.2 million for the site in 2019. Charlottesville, Virginia-based Anchor Healthcare Properties bought the building. A representative for Casto says the April 30 sale was the culmination of a months-long process. Anchor specializes in medical outpatient buildings and specialty health care facilities. The 70,000-square-foot medical center was built in 2020 and is 100% occupied. Tenants include the Cancer Center of Sarasota-Manatee, Lakewood Ranch Medical Group Primary Care, Venas Vascular Specialists, BioSpine Institute and Fresenius Kidney Care. An ambulatory surgery center run by physician-owned Advanced Surgery Center of Sarasota will be built out “in the near term” with two operating rooms for orthopedic, podiatry, joint replacement and spinal surgery procedures, according to a statement.

Proceed with proceeds: A building owner in Bradenton has obtained a $3.1 million bridge loan for its industrial property at 4214 Solutions Lane. According to Largo Capital, which originated and announced the loan, the money was pulled from equity on the property in order for the owner to close on a separate purchase. Manatee County property records show the owner is an LLC named LFG Solutions Lane. Largo says the Solutions Lane property is a newly built 16,000-square-foot small bay industrial building that’s 100% occupied. It is just east of Interstate 75. “The loan, which has no prepayment penalty, provides maximum flexibility for the borrower,” the firm says. Sarasota-based Largo was founded in 1989. According to its website, the firm passed $35 billion in total production last year. Ian Fitzgerald, an originator at the firm, secured the loan.

If you have news, notes or tips you want to pass along, contact [email protected]. Or you can text or call 727-371-6944.

Correction: This story has been updated to say developer Coulmnar is based in Dallas, Texas.

 

author

Louis Llovio

Louis Llovio is the deputy managing editor at the Business Observer. Before going to work at the Observer, the longtime business writer worked at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Maryland Daily Record and for the Baltimore Sun Media Group. He lives in Tampa.

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