The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Lutz since 1964 and Pasco since 1981.
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Illinois

Tuffy, Arby’s properties sell locally

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The end of the year is approaching, meaning it’s time for some commercial landowners to rethink their holdings. So recent sales of property currently occupied by companies like Tuffy Tire & Auto Service Center of Land O’ Lakes and Arby’s in Lutz probably won’t be the last Pasco County sees before Christmas.

3A LLC, the owner of the Tuffy property at 3530 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., sold the half-acre parcel Oct. 28 for $1.7 million to BL Ground Leasing LLC, a company based in Chicago. That’s far more than what 3A originally purchased that lot for in 2006 when it picked up vacant land for $375,000.

3A built the service shop there in 2009.

The “BL” in BL Ground Leasing likely stands for Bernard Leviton, who is listed as the president of the company, according to Florida state corporation records. He shares an address with Metropolitan Rental Corp., out of Chicago, which — according to its website — is a boutique real estate firm that owns apartment buildings around Chicago. The company adds that “all aspects of our business are done under one roof, and open seven days a week.”

The company’s website does not list any property holdings outside of Illinois.

The Tuffy property had originally been owned by David Mayer of Kentucky, who purchased it for $97,000 in 1990, according to property records.

The second land sale toward the end of October involved the Arby’s location at 22820 State Road 54 in Lutz. Olympus BK LLC sold that land for $1.7 million to JLD Realty Inc. and Longwood Realty Corp. of Kissimmee.

Details about this new owner are not clear. Neither JLD Realty nor Longwood Realty is registered with Florida’s corporation division. They are both described as New York companies, with an address at 4730 Oren Brown Road in Kissimmee. That property, according to Osceola County property records, is owned by Diamond Investments Inc., which lists its president as Darryl Diamond of Inglis.

An online social media profile of a Darryl Diamond in the Kissimmee area says he has been a real estate auctioneer for Diamond Investments since 1980, and also spent 25 years as president of Sparkle Motors beginning in 1960. There is a Sparkle Motors location on U.S. 1 in Port Orange.

Olympus BK bought the property in 2003 for $827,500 from The Estate of Tropical King LP of Tampa, which itself purchased the vacant 1-acre parcel in 1995 for $350,000, and built the Arby’s location there a short time later.

It’s not clear if either land purchase will affect the businesses there, but it’s not expected.

Doctor to talk in Hudson about Ebola scare

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What’s more scary than a witch or a haunted house right now for many people? It’s the threat of Ebola, which has now hit the United States in both Texas and New York.

But should it be that scary?

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point is offering a lecture “Ebola: Facts & Fiction” Nov. 17 at 3 p.m., at the Rao Musunuru Conference Center, 14100 Yosemite Drive, in Hudson.

Dr. K.V. Sundaresh will conduct the seminar. He is a board-certified doctor in infection disease and internal medicine. He completed his internship in general surgery at New York Hospital Medical Center, followed by a residency in internal medicine at Bergen Pines Co. Hospital and Jersey Shore Medical Center, both in New Jersey.

He completed a fellowship in infectious disease at Finch University Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School in Illinois.

Admission is free, but reservations are required, with seating offered on a first-come basis.

To date, just four people have been diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, two of them health workers in Texas who treated the first diagnosed case. Although there is a virus outbreak in parts of Africa, the ability to spread Ebola is still difficult, because it requires an infected person to show signs of the illness — like fever — and it requires direct contact with bodily fluids.

For more information on the lecture, call (727) 869-5498, or (888) 741-5119.

Florida’s unemployment rate slips, but still mostly flat

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Florida’s unemployment rate has slipped a bit in September, bringing it to its lowest point since June 2008, but still remaining mostly flat since last December.

The rate, according to Gov. Rick Scott’s office, was 6.1 percent in September, down from 6.3 percent in August. That was the result of 12,800 new private-sector jobs in the month, but the percentage of unemployed people is still larger than the rest of the nation.

The rate peaked at 11.4 percent in late 2009 and early 2010, while Gov. Charlie Crist was still in office. It was during the same time as a national economic crisis, which Florida was particularly hit hard because of its dependence on homebuilding and tourism — which suffered during the economic downturn.

However, that rate started to drop in April 2010, and was down to 10.9 percent when Scott took office in 2011. The rate would then not drop below 7 percent until September 2013, and has essentially remained flat at around 6.3 percent since last December.

The rate is still significantly higher than what it was in 2006, where the rate hovered around 3.3 percent.

In August, Florida’s unemployment rate was ranked 26th in the nation, tied with Arkansas and Missouri, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Georgia that month had the worst rate at 8.1 percent, while North Dakota could be statistically labeled as “fully employed” with a 2.8 percent rate.

Of the top five most populous states, with Florida ranked fourth with 19.6 million people, California was ranked 44th nationally in August with a 7.4 percent rate, New York was ranked 29th at 6.4 percent, Texas ranked 16th at 5.3 percent, and Illinois ranked 36th at 6.7 percent.

The governor’s office did point out other positive trends in the economy, including a 33.7 percent backlog reduction in existing homes on the market since December 2011, as well as a 2.9-percent increase in home prices in August compared to the previous year.

In September, Florida’s 24 regional work force boards reported more than 43,800 people were placed in jobs. This number is based on those who seek employment and training assistance through the center and finds a job with 180 days. Of that number, nearly 9,400 of them had been receiving unemployment benefits.

7-Eleven selling Lutz location, 74 others

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Competition from a new RaceTrac location just next door may have sealed the fate of a long-time service station in Pasco Lutz. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
Competition from a new RaceTrac location just next door may have sealed the fate of a long-time service station in Pasco Lutz. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

The 7-Eleven store at 23434 State Road 54 in Lutz, is one of 75 stations across the country 7-Eleven Inc. is putting up for sale.

Robbie Radant, a vice president with the company, said 7-Eleven is cutting loose stores like the Lutz one not because it’s underperforming, but because it no longer fits with its overall goals.

“There are many nice sites in this package that simple do not fit 7-Eleven’s current business model,” Radant said in a release. “All of these stores have solid merchandise sales, and should provide good opportunities for the right buyers.”

However, it’s likely that last year’s opening of a competing RaceTrac just next door may have played a role in why the 7-Eleven is hitting the market, after decades of minimal competition on its stretch of State Road 54.

7-Eleven is looking to part ways with 31 stores in Florida, along with 14 in Virginia, six in Massachusetts and Illinois, three in Texas and two in New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Utah. The company is selling single stores in Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

The Lutz site will not include the 7-Eleven branding, but could include a fuel contract with SEI Fuels Inc., a subsidiary of 7-Eleven, the company said.

7-Eleven has brought in NRC Realty & Capital Advisors of Chicago to conduct the sale, which will accept sealed bids from groups looking to buy single or multiple locations. The bid deadline is July 29.

The Lutz 7-Eleven opened in 1987 with a 3,100-square-foot store along State Road 54 when it was still a two-lane road. It includes a 10-year fuel contract.

For information on the sale, visit NRC.com/1408, or call (800) 747-3342, ext. 1408.

Wesley Chapel’s Arlington at Northwood sold, renamed

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A Chicago-based real estate company has bought its second community in the Tampa Bay area, taking over the former Arlington at Northwood, a 312-unit complex in Wesley Chapel.

BES Northwood Fund IX LLC, a company associated with Sherman Residential, finalized its sale of the high-end apartments May 15 for $36.1 million. That is nearly $10 million more than what the community’s previous owner, Protea Northwood Apartments, purchased the complex for in 2006 soon after it was built.

The new owners have brought in a new name for the complex as well, calling it Enclave at Wiregrass, according to the company’s website.

Enclave is considered a Class A apartment complex, meaning that it was built in the last 20 years or so, and comes with a number of luxury-style amenities. Sherman, on its website, says it’s looking to buy apartment communities that have at least 150 units, comprehensive amenity packages, and strong locations, among other things.

Sherman already owns the Enclave at Tranquility Lake in Riverview, as well as 13 other communities in Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, according to its website.

BES Northwood purchased the property through a $22.5 million loan. It’s located at 1930 Devonwood Drive, just off State Road 56 not far from The Shops at Wiregrass.

This is Pasco County’s largest property sale since August 2012 when Seneca at Cypress Creek was sold for $62.3 million. Units in that Lutz community sold for $138,100 each, while units at the new Enclave sold for $115,700 each.

 

How much will it cost this year to pay taxes?

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Taxpayers looking to hire a professional to complete their 2013 tax return can expect to pay an average of $261 for an itemized Form 1040 with Schedule A, according to a new report from the National Society of Accountants.

“The IRS says it takes an average of four hours just to complete and submit a Form 1040,” said John Ams, executive vice president of NSA, in a release. “You have to ask, ‘How much is your time worth?’”

Fee information was collected in a survey of tax preparers conducted by the NSA. The tax and accounting firms surveyed are largely owners, principals and partners of local “main street” companies who have an average of more than 26 years experience.

Other average fees include:

• $218 for a Form 1040 Schedule C (business)
• $590 for a Form 1065 (partnership)
• $806 for a Form 1120 (corporation)
• $761 for a Form 1120S (S corporation)
• $497 for a form 1041 (fiduciary)
• $667 for a Form 990 (tax exempt)
• $63 for a Form 940 (federal unemployment)
• $142 for a Schedule D (gains and losses)
• $165 for Schedule E (rental)
• $196 for Schedule F (farm)

The cost to prepare a Form 1040 with Schedule A varies by region, typically costing $270 in the south Atlantic region, which includes Florida and eight other states and territories. The most expensive was in the Pacific region — states like Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington — at $303, while the cheapest was in the east north central region — Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — at $238.

Of those surveyed, nearly 90 percent of accounting firms offer prospective clients a free consultation, which could be worth well more than $100. Also, 60 percent of firms do not require payment until returns are completed. Others may require a portion of the fee upfront, or payments throughout the tax return process.

All the fees, of course, assume the taxpayer has gathered and organized all necessary information. Extensions could cost an average of $44, while expediting a return could cost around $78.

For more information on how to find tax preparers through the NSA, visit www.NSAcct.org, or call (800) 966-6679.