News & Notes

Sarasota office building sells for $5.5 million

In the week's top commercial real estate news, Nordstrom Rack is expanding into Fort Myers, a St. Petersburg property locks down half a dozen tenants, and an investor keeps getting bigger in Manatee.


  • By Louis Llovio
  • | 5:00 a.m. July 14, 2024
  • | 2 Free Articles Remaining!
The Kodra Professional Center, an office building in Sarasota, has sold to a South Florida investor.
The Kodra Professional Center, an office building in Sarasota, has sold to a South Florida investor.
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Naples/Fort Myers/Charlotte

Vroom, vroom: A 0.98-acre parcel in Naples where an AutoZone auto parts store is being developed has sold. The property, which is an outparcel at The Randall at Orangetree development, was sold for $2.19 million. Marcus & Millichap brokered the deal but declined to name the buyer. A spokesperson for the firm says in an email that “The agents would like to keep the buyer's name confidential in this case.” County property records have not yet been updated. The 7,254-square-foot store is being built near the northeast corner of Immokalee Road and Randall Boulevard, across the street from the just-finished Publix-anchored Neighborhood Shoppes at Orangetree. The Randall at Orangetree is a 50-acre mixed-use development that includes a 400-unit multi-family development.

Building up: Geis Development, a Cleveland real estate firm, has just completed work on a 208,000-square-foot office park in Fort Myers. The Meridian Business Park is off Interstate 75 and Alico Road in Lee County and is made up of four buildings. The largest, Geis says, is 75,000 square feet. A second building is 60,000 square feet and the remaining two are 35,000 square feet. Each building is equipped with 21-foot clear-height ceilings and is equipped to handle hazard storage with fully operational safety sprinkler systems, Geis says. The center is currently 70% leased with three of the four building fully occupied. While based in Ohio, family owned Geis Cos. has ties in the area with an office in Bonita Springs and a 264-unit apartment community named The Centro just off Alico Road in Fort Myers.

Shoppers delight: Nordstrom Rack is opening a new store in Fort Myers. The Seattle-based retailer says its “off-price retail division” store will be in Bell Tower, the center on Daniels Parkway in Fort Myers. The store is expected to open this fall and will be 31,000 square feet. The company currently has 19 Nordstrom Rack stores in the state, including locations in east Manatee County, Brandon, Tampa, Clearwater and Naples. The high-end retailer says its Nordstrom Rack division is its largest source of new customers. A big reason for that is its pricing and options. The company says customers who shop at its stores get merchandise up to 70% off the MSRP while getting many of the brands at its traditional stores. In addition to the off-price stores, Nordstrom has six of its traditional location in the state. One of those is in Tampa.


Tampa/St. Petersburg/Pasco/Polk

Leasing up: A New York property owner signed leases with tenants on 50,000 square feet at two St. Petersburg properties. The Feil Organization says the leases — six new and three renewals — are for space at the Baypoint Commerce Center, a 15-building office park, and 570 Carillon, a five-story building in the Carillon Business Park. At 570 Carillon, Condominium Associates took a 23,500-square-foot space on the second floor. As for the Baypoint Commerce Center leases:

  • Faith Covenant Church is a new tenant that took 5,000 square feet. 
  • Youth Opportunity Investment renewed its lease for 5,000 square feet.
  • EVATEC is a new tenant that took 2,200 square feet.
  • NCS Pearson renewed its lease for 1,400 square feet.
  • Florida Agency Network is a new tenant that took for 1,200 square feet.
  • Healing Hands Home Healthcare renewed its lease for 500 square feet.
  • Del Assets is a new tenant that took 497 square feet.
  • Adaptive Learning Educational Consulting is a new tenant that took 167 square feet.

Feil’s portfolio includes 24 million square feet in industrial, commercial and retail space, more than 5,000 residential properties and thousands of undeveloped acres nationwide.

One Tampa is a 42-story tower to be built in downtown Tampa.
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And it begins: Construction has officially started on a 42-story downtown tower in Tampa. The Kolter Group held a ceremonial groundbreaking July 11 for One Tampa at 520 N. Tampa St. The tower is being built just off Ashley Street and across from Curtis Hixon Park. It is expected to be completed late in 2026. It will be made up of 225 units and 5,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The building will have one-, two- and three-bedroom units from 1,100 to 4,000 square feet. The top three floors will include two story units and four penthouses. All the units will come with floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors and windows, as well as private balconies, with views of the city and Tampa Bay. Kolter is a prolific Palm Beach developer with a slew of projects already in the works along the Gulf Coast. Among them are the 24-story Island at West Bay Club in Estero and the two-tower The Ritz-Carlton Residences in Sarasota.


Sarasota/Manatee

Office sale: The Kodra Professional Center, a more-than 50-year-old downtown Sarasota office building, has been sold. The buyer is a South Florida investment firm named Hollywood Moon Development that paid $5.5 million for it. The building is at 777 S. Palm Ave. and is across the street from Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. According to SVN Advisory Group, the 56-year-old building has 11,825 square feet of space and has views of Sarasota Bay. It was renovated in 2004. SVN’s Gail Bolden represented Kodra Professional Corp., which bought the building in 2001 for $1.17 million. As for who Hollywood Moon is or what its intentions are, there aren’t a lot details available online. The company is an LLC with a Miami address. A website for it — provided in an email from SVN — is dedicated to convincing neighbors to support a massive condo development on a beach. But it must be for those in the know because there is no address for the property.

Benderson Development acquired this Walgreens at 2527 North Reserve Street in Missoula, Montana.
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The big get bigger: East Manatee County developer and real estate investor Benderson Development keeps growing. The firm is now a property owner in 40 states after buying a freestanding Walgreens in Missoula, Montana, expanding its national footprint to include the Treasure State. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed. The Walgreens is at 2527 N. Reserve St. It is the latest in a series of acquisitions by University Park-based Benderson, which is actively growing its portfolio. The 75-year-old company currently oversees more than 1,000 properties. Since the beginning of the year, Benderson has bought North River Marketplace in Venice, a 51-acre site for a mixed-use development; Glengary Shoppes in Sarasota anchored by Barnes & Noble and Best Buy; Monarch Ranch, a 3,400-acre industrial development site in Wildwood; Linton Commons in Delray Beach; and two Trader Joe’s stores in Columbia, South Carolina, and Asheville, North Carolina. It also bought Carillon Place in Naples, a 250,000-square-foot open-air shopping center with TJ Maxx and Walmart last month.


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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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