Three St. Armands buildings sell for $5.3 million

Three commercial buildings on St. Armands Circle sold for a total of $5.34 million during the first week of January.

Key Biscayne real-estate investor Max Puyanic, his son, David Puyanic, and several other silent investors, through the limited partnership St. Armands Circle Partners Ltd., bought two of the buildings: the two-story 15,472-square-foot McCarver & Moser Jewelers building for $2.7 million and a 4,054-square-foot building housing Square on the Circle and Loralie Designs for $1.14 million.

The price equated to $174 per square foot for the larger building and $281 per square foot for the smaller single-story building.

The two buildings are 100% leased, according to Puyanic.

Puyanic is the founder of Commodore Realty Inc., a Key Biscayne real-estate brokerage specializing in low-risk investments. Excluding the St. Armands Circle properties, his company holds a portfolio of eight retail properties statewide with a total of 848,196 square feet. Locally, he owns and manages the Publix- and hhgregg-anchored 191,148-square-foot Sarasota Crossing shopping center, the Publix-anchored 158,000-square-foot Sarasota Commons, 136,000-square-foot Bird Bay Plaza and a 47,867-square-foot Sweetbay, in Palmetto.

“I’ve owned quite a lot of other properties in Sarasota and have always liked St. Armands Circle,” Puyanic says. “So, when the opportunity became available, we bought it. It was a little diversion from our normal routine, but it’s still retail space. We wanted to give investment in that area a try.”

Lee DeLieto Sr., of Michael Saunders & Co., represented the buyer, and Ryan Hoffman, of Wagner Realty, represented the seller.

In the other St. Armands Circle transaction, Fillmore Management I LLC and Fillmore Management II LLC purchased the former Carman’s Shoes building, at 436 St. Armands Circle, from William II and Judith Carman and Janna Carman for $1.5 million. The 1,775-square-foot, three-story building was originally built for the Old Colony Restaurant in 1949. William Carman said the St. Armands building was the first commercial condominium on the West Coast of Florida.

Sports photographers, The Stadium Gallery store owners and The Rob Arra Collections founders Robert
Arra and Loring Weatherholtz headed up the two limited-liability companies that acquired the building. Arra and his companies specialize in panoramic sports-event photographs.

The Stadium Gallery currently operates from a leased store at 372 St. Armands Circle. Arra declined to comment on his plans for the former Carman’s Shoes building.

Lee DeLieto Jr., of Michael Saunders & Co., handled the transaction.