Goodwill retail store to be built on Ruskin site that sold for $2.6M

Naples, Fort Myers and Charlotte

A former Badcock & More Home Furniture store in Fort Myers is on the market for sale or for lease. The store is at 1750 N. Tamiami Trail near Pine Island Road. According to a listing from SRS Real Estate Partners, the 13,563-square-foot building sits on 2.23 acres and comes with 48 parking spaces. Lee County property records show the building is owned by an Orlando area investor who paid $1.72 million for it in 2022. A marketing flyer for the property doesn’t disclose a sale or lease price, asking anyone interested to reach out to the brokers — Chris Stewart and Jacob Rasnick. The store is a casualty of Conn Inc.’s ill-fated purchase of the 120-year-old Polk County-based W.S. Badcock in late 2023. The Houston furniture and appliance retailer bought the local chain only to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 218 days later and close all of its stores. Badcock was founded in 1904 in Mulberry and was family operated until November 2021, when it sold for $580 million to Los Angeles-based Franchise Group Inc. 

Tampa, St. Petersburg, Pasco and Polk

A pair of Ruskin properties have been sold in deals totaling $3.54 million. The first sale was of a 6.2-acre parcel off of College Avenue in Hillsborough County. It was bought by North Carolina developer Piedmont Companies for $2.6 million. Jack Koehler, a broker with Tampa-based Eshenbaugh Land Co., says Piedmont plans to build a Goodwill retail store on the site. The second piece of property is a 1.8-acres parcel along U.S. Highway 41. It sold for $954,000 as an investment property. Koehler, who represented the sellers on both deals, says the buyer wants to remain anonymous. (County property records have not been updated.) Ruskin is an unincorporated area in southern Hillsborough just south of Apollo Beach and near the Manatee County line. Like much of that area, it is quickly growing. Koehler says the two deals “underscore the continued momentum in Ruskin, with strong demand from both developers and investors.” Bill Eshenbaugh, a senior advisor and president at the firm, worked with Koehler on the 1.8-acre land sale.

Courtesy image

The Stro Cos. and the Kushner Real Estate Group have bought a two-property portfolio in Florida which includes a building in Brandon. The portfolio totals 43,000 square feet and was bought for $5.87 million. The Brandon property is a 20,380-square-foot industrial building at 425 Hobbs St. just off of Interstate 75 near Falkenberg Road. According to Hillsborough property records, it sold for $3.26 million. Stro says in a statement that the portfolio was bought off market as a sale/leaseback. Property records in Hillsborough and Duvall counties show the buildings were previously owned by a family trust, and both are occupied by piping supplier PVF Industrial. The Jacksonville building sold for $2.61 million. It was bought in 2005 for $750,000. The Brandon property was bought in 2007 for $475,000. The purchase in Hillsborough is the second recent buy of area industrial properties by the two New Jersey firms. In early March the pair said it had bought a 19,422-square-foot building at 5126 West Cypress St. for $3.9 million. Stro Cos. was founded in 1994 and its portfolio is made up of 4 million square feet of mostly industrial space in New Jersey and Florida. Kushner owns and manages more than 6 million square feet of office, warehouse and retail space nationally.

Construction has officially begun on a 72-acre, 403,000-square-foot Pasco County production and distribution center foe Brazilian food producer Bauducco Foods. A ceremonial groundbreaking was held in Zephyrhills in late March to mark the start of work on the site. Plans call for the facility to be built in in three phases. The first is expected to be operational by mid-2026, the second by 2028; and the third by 2030. When complete the company will employ about 600 people. Bauducco is investing more than $200 million in the project and is getting incentives from both the county and Zephyrhills approved in October 2023. The Pasco County Commission passed an economic incentive agreement for a 25% ad valorem tax reimbursement not to exceed $4.43 million and a $100,000 workforce training grant. The city approved incentives totaling $8.27 million. Bauducco was founded in 1952 and manufactures baked food products, including biscuits, wafers and breads and is said to be the largest producer of panettone (a type of Italian sweet bread) in the world and a market leader in this country. Its products are sold in all 50 states. According to the company, it produces 400,000 tons of baked goods annually.

Sarasota and Manatee

Image courtesy of Horizon Realty International

A Manatee County property that includes a vacant lot and a 21,524-square-foot building once belonging to a used car dealership has sold. The property is at 6425 and 6315 15th St. E. and was bought by Bill Camp Consulting. According to Horizon Realty International, which represented the seller, the company paid $5.24 million. The building on the property was previously occupied by Target Auto Brokers. It’s not clear when the dealership closed but a Facebook page showing it at the 15th St. address hasn’t been updated since February 2020. According to Manatee County records, the properties were previously owned by a local LLC tied to a private investor who paid $3.73 million for them in 2023. Horizon’s Niko Georgiev, Mariana Georgiev and Ivailo Georgiev represented the seller and shared details of the sale. 

A 19,260-square-foot office building in downtown Sarasota is on the market. The Finergy Building at 2170 Main St. is a four-story property built in 2008 and zoned Downtown Core. The asking price is $4.75 million. It is currently owned by a local LLC named FSKS Rental, which paid $3.35 million for it in 2016. According to a marketing email from Eric Massey, a senior commercial advisor for MSC Commercial who has the listing, the building is fully leased, has14 suites and is LEED-certified. Massey writes that there have been some upgrades recently, including a new roof with a 15-year warranty and the installation of solar panels. As for the suites, all but one has a kitchenette and each is separately metered for electricity. Massey says the building "generates a strong, reliable income stream." MSC is the commercial real estate division of Sarasota’s Michael Saunders & Co.

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