New York firm buys 246 Tampa condos, borrowing $32 million

Naples/Fort Myers

Wheel & deal: A suburban Atlanta car dealer has spent more than $110 million to buy three local dealerships. According to industry publication Auto Dealer Today, the Krause Auto Group has bought Sutherlin Nissan of Cape Coral, Sutherlin Nissan of Fort Myers and Sutherlin Genesis, also in Fort Myers. The dealer group told the publication it is renovating the Fort Myers Nissan store and will expand its service department. As for the Genesis store, it will move to a new location about a mile south of its current home at 13921 S. Tamiami Trail. Also changing will be the names of all three dealerships. They’ve been rebranded as Nissan of Cape Coral, Nissan of Fort Myers and Fort Myers Genesis. With the purchase, Krause now has 23 dealerships, including four in Florida. The other is Hyundai of Venice in south Sarasota County.

That was quick: The site of a Mister Car Wash in Naples has sold less than a year after it last changed hands. The property at 7405 Rattlesnake Hamm Road was bought by local investors using an LLC. The investors paid $4.02 million. The previous owner, an LLC belonging to the Orion Real Estate Group in Miami, paid $2.97 million in April. The national car wash chain has one other location in Naples — 894 Airport Pulling Road — and 11 more in Southwest Florida. In all, it has 32 locations along the Gulf Coast.

Million dollar listings: Kolter Urban, the prolific Palm Beach developer, has hired Compass Florida to market its new The Island at West Bay Club project in Estero. The firm will be the exclusive brokerage for the project and will be charged with marketing it to prospective buyers. Leah Paige and Chloe Bowman are representing the property. Kolter is building the 24-story, 86-unit condominium tower in the 870-acre West Bay Club community. Plans call for the tower to have three and four bedroom units ranging in size from between 3,300 square feet to 3,600 square feet. There will also be two half-floor, 6,000-square foot penthouses. Kolter says prices start at $3.5 million. Construction, the developer said in December, is expected to begin later this year and finish in 2026. A sales gallery has opened at 22050 S Tamiami Trail.

Tampa/St. Petersburg

Courtesy image

Trip to Publix: A Virginia real estate investor has bought a Publix-anchored shopping center in Pasco County. The buyer, Graphite Real Estate, is based in suburban Washington, D.C. and the property is the Holiday Centre at the intersection of U.S. Highway 19 and Sunray Drive in Holiday. Graphite paid $9.9 million for the property, which is about four miles north of the Tarpon Spring sponge docks. The firm says the center is 98% leased. In addition to Publix, its tenant roster includes Planet Fitness, Bright Now Dental and Publix Liquor. The 67,035-square-foot center was built in 1994. The previous owner, Miami-based CF Properties, paid $9.6 million for the center in 2020. 

Slow takeover: Axonic Properties, a New York private equity firm, has bought 246 condominiums in a 361-unit Tampa development. The building is Palmera Pointe and there is no immediate word on what the firm’s long-term plans are. The deal was announced by JLL Capital Markets which did not disclose a sale price or respond to questions about the buyer’s intentions. Berkadia, however, says it helped Axonic secure a $32.23 million loan to close the deal. In a statement, Berkadia says the private equity firm began buying units in the development in 2021 and already owned 36 when it closed on the 246 others. Axonic now owns 78% percent of the property — 282 out of the 361 units. The loan is for five years, with $25 million going toward initial purchase and $7.23 million for the firm “to execute their business plan,” says Berkadia. Palmera Pointe is in Tampa’s Town ‘n’ Country neighborhood, northwest of Tampa International Airport. The 20-acre development was built in 1974 and is made up of two- and three-story buildings with condos averaging 1,109 square feet. 

The painted word: A Maaco Collision Repair & Auto Painting shop in St. Petersburg has been sold to a California investor operating a family trust. The property, at 3984 Tyrone Blvd. was bought for $1.45 million as part of a 1031 exchange. SRS Capital Real Estate, which announced the deal and represented the seller who bought the property in 2018, says the closing cap rate was 6.62%. The Dallas real estate firm says it was an all cash transaction at 94% of the list price. The 7.322-square-foot shop was built in 2003 and sits on 0.68 of an acre. It is in a heavily commercial section of the city and less than two miles from Tyrone Square mall.

Sarasota/Manatee

Courtesy image

School days: The Manatee County School Board has bought a 30-acre parcel on North River Ranch Trail off of Fort Hamer Road in Parrish for $2.7 million. The property will be the site of North River Ranch Middle School, which is being built for students living in North River Ranch and the area around it. Construction is expected to start this month and should be done in time for the 2025-2026 school year. The announcement was made by Neal Land & Neighborhoods, the local developer of the master planned community in North Manatee County. 

Top that: Crews working on Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s new $75 million Kolschowsky Research & Education Institute have reached the top. The five-story building is at 1880 Arlington St. on the site of what once was the Doctors Gardens medical office building. When it’s complete, the approximately 80,000-square-foot institute will allow doctors, nurses and students to get hands-on training on new treatments and technologies. With the top reached, workers have begun installing support steel, exterior walls and windows as well as interior framing, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems. Roofing is expected to begin in March, SMH says in a statement.

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