Manatee County entrepreneur buys 333 rural acres for $2.5M

Sarasota/Manatee

No I in team: Manatee County businessman, landowner and philanthropist Mark Pentecost has bought 333 acres in the rural eastern part of the county for $2.5 million. The plot is a tiny part of Pentecost’s holdings in east Manatee County: he already owns the 10,000-acre Pentecost Ranch in the area. The seller of the site, 11500 Curtis Road, Myakka City, is P-3 Real Estate Holdings LLC, according to a statement from Fort Myers-based LSI Cos. The buyer is Team Pentecost LLC. That entity, according to the Florida Division of Corporation website, is connected to the Palmetto address of It Works! a wellness and health products firm with a direct sales model Pentecost founded in 2001. It Works! annual revenue has surpassed $500 million, and Pentecost has made some noted purchases with the success. The list includes a golf course in Manatee County he bought and sold; a 1,995-acre site, also in Myakka City, for $6.8 million in 2016; and Littler Bokeelia Island, a 104-acre island off of the Lee County coast. Pentecost and his wife Cindy bought the 104-acre island for $14.5 million in 2015. The Pentecosts have made several notable charitable contributions, including $12 million donated in May to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Hunter Ward of LSI Cos. brokered the deal.

Home, suite, home: The city of Sarasota Development Review Committee recently held a pre-application conference to provide input on a proposed four-story, 102-room hotel on 1.82 acres just south of University Parkway near the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. The property at 325 Royal Palm Ave. is bounded by a Hyatt Place hotel to the north, Sleep Inn to the west and a vacant residential parcel to the south, according to the Sarasota Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer. The property is zoned Residential Multiple Family 2 with a future land use classification of Urban Mixed Use. Applicant United Hospital Group of Florida is proposing to rezone the property to Mixed Use 2.

Naples/Fort Myers/Charlotte

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Store yourself: YourStorageUnits Capital Partners has obtained a four-year $75 million loan to build six self-storage facilities, including one in Fort Myers. JLL Capital Markets led the financing efforts, according to a statement. The six buildings, the release states, will be purpose-built, Class A self-storage properties. There will be a total of 4,082 units. In addition to the Fort Myers project, the other properties are in Vero Beach, Sebring, Ocoee, Cocoa and Fort Pierce. The YourStorageUnits facilities, the release adds, will offer an array of modern features, including climate-controlled units, interior drive through unloading zones, covered canopy boat/RV parking, drive-up storage and some retail/office space. JLL’s Capital Markets Debt Advisory team representing the borrower was led by Senior Managing Director Sher Hafeez, Managing Director Griffin Guthneck and Director John Williamson. YourStorageUnits Capital Partners develops and operates Class A self-storage assets, primarily across the Southeast. In the last 24 months YSU has successfully delivered 15 self-storage assets.

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Keys to success: Developers behind a 160-room boutique hotel along the Cocohatchee River in North Naples say the property — under the brand The Perry, which debuted in Key West in 2017 — is scheduled to open this fall. The $80 million project is at 12155 Tamiami Trail N., Naples. The hotel, according to a statement, is seven floors. Features include  spacious guest rooms, most with balconies; a ground-floor pool and adjacent activity lawn; a poolside tapas eatery; a lobby coffee bar; a fitness center, and an open-air deck featuring a rooftop pool; a poolside bar highlighting craft cocktails; and rooftop Tigress Restaurant, a full-service venue serving chef-driven Asian-fusion cuisine and panoramic views. Casa Conde & Associates is the design firm.  

Tampa/St. Petersburg/Pasco/Polk

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Excellent idea: The Drake, a 477-unit apartment complex at 1699 68th St. N., St. Petersburg, has been sold. The buyer is Bethesda, Maryland-based Excelsa Properties, which intends to invest $8 million in capital improvements, according to a statement. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed and Pinellas County property records weren’t updated as of July 25. The previous owner, GMC Brandywine LLC, paid $55.33 million for the complex in December 2020, county records show. Excelsa, the release states, made the acquisition in a joint deal with Excelsa US Real Estate II LP and an Excelsa co-investment vehicle. The garden-style multifamily property has 36 residential buildings and a clubhouse/leasing center. Amenities include a 24-hour fully-equipped fitness center; three resort-style pools, two dog parks and a picnic area. The complex was built in 1972 and has undergone two renovations. Excelsa officials say they were driven to invest in St. Pete due to the area’s solid demographics, highly-skilled workforce and six-plus Fortune 500 companies, including two headquarters. Excelsa Properties is a real estate asset manager with a focus on multifamily investments. It has $300 million in total assets under management.

Multi markets: In a move founder and president Willy Nunn says he’s been looking at for a few years, Homes by WestBay is getting into the multifamily apartment market. The Riverview-based homebuilder, with $700.44 million in revenue in 2023, is also entering the fast-growing build-to-rent single family home sector, according to a statement. The company named Brian LeBlanc, with experience in real estate and private equity in New York and Tampa, vice president of multifamily. Working with Nunn, the company, in the statement, says LeBlanc “will initially be focused on sourcing new land acquisition opportunities to feed the new rental housing business lines. Brian will then oversee the new project pipeline through entitlements, design, capitalization, construction, operations and ultimately disposition.” Nunn talked about entering the multifamily market in an interview with the Business Observer last fall. Nunn mentioned his belief that a market shakeout in the hot-hot-hot multifamily market is forthcoming. “We see opportunity, as institutional investors withdraw from the space due to changes in capital markets and the tremendous excess supply that’s coming,” Nunn said last October. 

Zoom zoom: Azola South Tampa, a 214-unit complex nestled in the South Tampa neighborhood of Rembrandt Gardens on the outskirts of MacDill Air Force Base, has sold for $64.3 million. Miami-based multifamily real estate investment firm Momentum Real Estate Partners bought the building, according to a statement. Azola South Tampa floor plans range from 750 square-foot one-bedroom apartments to 2,100 square-foot townhome units with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms.Some amenities of the complex include a 6,000-square-foot clubhouse with a resident lounge, coworking areas, a kitchenette, a gaming room with billiards, and a fitness center. The outdoor portion of the community includes a partially shaded dog park, a swimming pool and a pavilion.ZOM Living has been developing in the Tampa area for 30 years. The company announced in May it secured a $63 million construction loan to begin building MetWest Residential, a new 375-unit community with 3,000 square feet of mixed-use retail space in Tampa’s Westshore District.

Louis Llovio is on vacation.