Bullet Hole owners buy Orange Avenue building

More than two years after the Bullet Hole relocated to a new building on Orange Avenue, one of the oldest businesses in downtown Sarasota has signaled it intends to stay.

Francis Misantone with his wife Barbara and son Brooke, co-owners of the gun repair, sales and safe shop, have bought the 7,875-square-foot property at 330 S. Orange Ave. for $900,000, according to a deed filed with the Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court. The move comes about two-and-a-half years after the iconic business left Main Street to seek a longer lease.

"We’ve been here for 67 years and we had only moved around the corner," Francis Misantone said. "So we’re not going anywhere."

The building last sold for $1.6 million to local real estate investors Douglas Tibbetts and Gary Sligar. The pair developed the nearby Ringling Square office building, which sold for $11.5 million in April.

"Well for the business, it means equity," said Misantone, who said he felt that paying rent every month was "like throwing money away."