Boca Raton buyer picks up property near one of the hottest corners in St. Pete
By Margie Manning
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 15, 2016

Two well-known Pinellas County real estate investors have sold the ground lease for the property that houses a newly constructed TD Bank branch on Fourth Street N in St. Petersburg.

BDG 39th Ave. LLC sold the TD Bank Ground Lease for the property at 3900 49th St. N on Jan. 6 for $3.25 million, Pinellas County Property Appraiser records show. BDG 39th Ave is managed by Carlos Yepes, president and CEO of Belleair Development Group in Pinellas Park, and Chris Moench, CEO of Directed Capital Resources, a St. Petersburg company that focuses on distressed commercial mortgages.

Property records list the buyer as Harris Realty & Associates LP in Boca Raton, but a press release from Marcus & Millichap, the firm that arranged the sale, describes the buyer as a family trust. Scott Sandelin, an investment specialist in Marcus & Millichap's Miami office, represented the buyer. Gabriel Britti, Jonathan Gerszberg and Ronnie Issenberg, investment specialists in the firm's Miami office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller.

The buyer "saw the merits of buying into such a solid tenant in a market that is so strong that that there are two brand new Publix [Super] Markets just one block from the property,” Sandelin said in the release. "He wanted a secure investment and we found it for him.”

There were multiple offers at or around list price on the deal, Issenberg said in the release.

TD Bank has not responded to request for comment about the new branch, other than to say it's expected to open in late February or early March. Sources familiar with the project said it will be similar to the prototype branch that the bank opened in Naples last year, which features a more compact layout and enhanced technology, although slightly larger than that Naples facility.

TD Bank, a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD), had about $985 million in deposits and 21 offices in the Tampa Bay area, including four in St. Petersburg, as of June 30, the most recent date for which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has data. TD filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Nov. 19 to close one of those branches, at 9400 4th St. N. In April, the bank asked the OCC to relocate its branch at 425 22nd Ave. N. to the new branch at 3900 4th St. N., and the OCC approved that relocation in May.

Margie Manning is Finance Editor of the Tampa Bay Business Journal. She covers the Money beat.