Golden Apple building gets facelift

It’s curtains for the facade of the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre building, as construction crews have begun to demolish the front of the property in advance of the arrival of new tenants.

The Golden Apple, located at 25 N. Pineapple Ave. closed for the second and final time in March 2013. The property owners, Great Lakes Developments Inc., plan to turn the building into more than 12,000 square feet of some combination of retail, restaurant and office space.

As part of the transition, the building is being renovated — including the installation of a new storefront. John Harshman, whose real estate brokerage firm Harshman and Company Inc. is marketing the property, said the new storefront will incorporate the same type of arts theme seen at the neighboring Sarasota Opera House.

According to a site plan, the new building is slated to feature a 6,535-square-foot restaurant space a 2,360-square-foot retail space and a 1,7888-square-foot retail space along Pineapple Avenue. An additional 1,100 square foot space, which lacks frontage on Pineapple, is also available.

No tenants have signed a lease for the new property. Harshman said he’s talking with multiple parties interested in moving into the new building. Despite that site plan, he said there is a great deal of flexibility depending on the needs of a prospective lessee.

“We have a plan that makes sense for us, but if we have a tenant that needs some different space, we should be able to accommodate that,” Harshman said.

Harshman said he expected construction to be complete within 60 to 90 days barring any uncontrollable or unforeseen delays.

“It’s a phenomenal location right on Five Points Park,” Harshman said. “It’ll be a tremendous asset to downtown once it’s finished.”

Contact David Conway at [email protected].