Naples, Fort Myers and Charlotte
A Toronto-based developer is planning to build a combined commercial and industrial park on 10 acres at 25411 Old 41 Road in Bonita Springs. The 181,000-square-foot development will be named The Bonita Foundry and will also include The Enclave at The Bonita Foundry, a “purpose-built luxury warehouse condominium facility.” Forager Real Estate Partners, which also has an office in Naples, describes the project as a “flex commercial and recreational development” and says it will address a demand for versatile light industrial, commercial and flex retail in the market. Conor McBroom, Forager’s president and founder, says an in email that when complete, Bonita Foundry will have 37 luxury warehouse condominiums, 37 shallow-bay flex industrial units and 19 street-facing flex commercial units. These will be combinable, and Forager anticipates it will lease and sell multiple units to single prospects. Forager paid $7.85 million for the land and McBroom says the total cost of the project is in the tens of millions. Forager is a private equity real estate developer, investor and asset management company founded in 2019. It has bought and developed more than 750,000 square feet of commercial space with a project cost of more than $250 million. Locally, it owns the Mercantile Business Center in Naples. Construction on Bonita Foundry is expected to begin early next year and take 14 months to complete.
The historic Edison Theatre in Fort Myers was sold to Sanibel Captiva Community Bank, which has operated a branch there since 2017.
Sanibel Captiva Community Bank has bought the Edison Theatre building in downtown Fort Myers. Lee County records show the bank paid $2 million for the historic property at 1533 Hendry St. According to Cinema Treasures, a website dedicated to movie houses, the Edison Theatre first opened Sep. 9, 1941, with a double feature: “Charlie Chan in Rio” and “Mystery Ship.” It closed as a theatre in June 1981 and has operated as offices since. Sanibel Captiva has operated a branch in the theatre building since 2017 and has no intention of moving, according to a statement on the purchase. Commercial tenants occupy the second and third floors of the building and no changes are planned for the space either. The bank was founded in 2003 and currently operates eight branches in the county. Two of them — at 15975 McGregor Blvd. in Fort Myers and on Fort Myers Beach — suffered hurricane damage and employees are working out of temporary locations as new buildings are built.
Tampa, St. Petersburg, Pasco and Polk
NVGTN, a Pasco County online fitness and lifestyle clothing brand, has sold its headquarters and is leasing it back. The 100,000-square-foot building in the Trinity Corporate Center was bought by New Jersey-based Greek Real Estate Partners for $22.5 million, according to the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. Terms of the lease were not disclosed. NVGTN (pronounced navigation) built the facility itself spending, according to a 2022 announcement, $15 million. The company, which had been based in Clearwater at the time, built its new headquarters to expand its customer service and fulfillment operations. The building has 34-foot clear height, 21 dock-high doors, three oversized drive-in doors and LED lighting. Brett and Ashleigh Schneggenburger started NVGTN in 2018 to address what they saw as a need for form-flattering activewear. Today it has clients in 180 countries. Greek Real Estate, which is based in East Brunswick, New Jersey, develops, builds and manages industrial properties. Cushman & Wakefield’s Rick Brugge, Mike Davis, Rock Colon, Trey Carswell and Lisa Ross represented NVGTN.
Casa di Francesco, an affordable housing community for seniors in Hillsborough County, officially opened in early May.
Casa di Francesco, a 140-unit affordable housing community for people 55 and up, has opened in Hillsborough County. And, unlike many affordable housing developments around the region, space is available. The project was developed by Blue Sky Communities on a small part of a 20-acre property belonging to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on State Road 579 in Mango, about 1.5 miles south of Interstate 4. The project came to be when Rev. Edison Bernavas, pastor at St. Francis since 2017, saw that many of the elderly parishioners he visited lacked affordable housing options. The church was only occupying a small portion of its property and, he believed, it had plenty of room for something to be built to help out. Bernavas met with St. Petersburg-based Blue Sky, which was already in talks with Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg about building affordable housing on church property, and an agreement was reached shortly before the pandemic. The groundbreaking was held in December 2023 and a ribbon cutting was held last week. The four-story building has 140 units — 100 one bedrooms and 40 two bedrooms — for seniors at 22%, 33%, and 60% of the Area Median Income. The building opened with 104 units available at 60% AMI (The current 60% AMI rental rates are $1,056 for a one-bedroom and $1,274 for a two-bedroom.)
Sarasota and Manatee
Polk County-based SouthState operates 371 branches in eight states.
SouthState Corp.’s blockbuster deal to sell off and lease back 165 properties included two branches in Manatee County — 410 8th Ave. W. in Palmetto and 900 53rd Ave. E. in Bradenton — and one in Sarasota — 6204 N. Lockwood Ridge Road. The Polk County bank closed the $457 million sale of the branches in March. The sale of the portfolio to the New York investment firm Blue Owl Real Estate Capital included branches in six states and, according a federal filing, “resulted in a pre-tax gain of approximately $229 million, after transaction related expenses.” SouthState kept all the branches open, signing 15-year, triple net leases on each. The leases included three five-year renewal options and 2% annual rent increases. Now, a couple of months later, details of the sale of individual branches are beginning to pop up. Local property records show the Palmetto branch sold for $5.29 million; the Bradenton branch sold for $4.54 million; and the Sarasota branch sold for $2.91 million. (A branch at 10101 Bloomingdale Ave. in Riverview sold $4.06 million, according to Hillsborough County records.) SouthState, according to its first quarter earnings report issued April 24, has $65.1 billion in total assets as of March 31.
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