Historic Main Street building sold for $5.8 million

 The Kress Building in downtown Sarasota was built in 1932. New ownership plans to target high-end retail tenants.

The noteworthy Kress Building at 1440 Main St. has been sold for $5.8 million. 

Sarasota land financial specialist and business person Eric Baird bought the 25,500-square-foot property from proprietor Doug Libertore of 1 Health Place International, as indicated by a public statement. The structure was inherent in 1932. 

Baird has had a bustling altercation Sarasota business land. He was important for a gathering of speculators who sold a segment of the Main Plaza complex, likewise on Main Street, to a Greenwich, Conn.- based land venture trust last November for $20 million. In mid-2019 Baird purchased the Hotel Ranola, a boutique lodging in midtown Sarasota, for $2.9 million. 

As of the March 3 shutting of the Kress Building, the perplexing's first-floor retail space had no tenants. FIMC Insurance is the solitary inhabitant, involving the second and third floors, the delivery expressed. That organization has expressed its aim to restore its rent in September 2020. 

Baird plans to enrol very good quality retail inhabitants to the main floor space and move the workplaces of his organization, EB Kress LLC, to the fourth floor. The property additionally has a housetop deck, as indicated by the delivery. 

"It's a particularly tremendous structure," Baird said in the assertion. "Also, this is an extraordinary chance to put some new, very good quality retailers on Main Street." 

The structure's cutting edge engineering, including a block and-stone exterior, makes it one of the final Art Deco tourist spots in the region. The overhang veneer bears the "Kress" logo and the engraving, "5-10-25 CENT STORE." 

"This famous structure has been here for almost 90 years, and it should keep on being observed," Baird said. "I'm eager to be a piece of Sarasota history." 

Sarasota's Kress Building was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. 

Kevin Robbins of Harry E. Robbins Associates spoke to the purchaser in the exchange.