Lakewood Ranch charter school sells for $6.6 million

LAKEWOOD RANCH -- A New York communications company has purchased a Manatee County charter school's property for $6.6 million for its investment potential.

According to Sarasota-based Ian Black Real Estate, a subsidiary of Hemisphere Communications of Hamburg, N.Y., bought the buildings and land used by Imagine Schools this week. Imagine Schools, a national charter school company with schools in a dozen states, has operated the Lakewood Ranch school since 2009. The school offers pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade classes.

The seller in the transaction was a subsidiary of Lakewood Ranch master developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch. The company built the two-building, 36-classroom, 33,000-square-foot campus in 2008 and 2009, according to county land records. The buildings sit on a little more than 3 acres at 10525 and 10535 Portal Crossing. The property is south of State Road 64 and just west of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard.

Hemisphere talked SMR down from an original list price of $7.4 million.

Ian Black, principal of his eponymous commercial real

estate company, said the school will lease the building from Hemisphere. He expects that the buyer will get a 10-percent annual return on its investment with the school as a tenant.

Imagine Schools' charter is up for renewal in 2018, but its lease stretches until 2023. Black said the school has a capacity of more than 600 students. It presently has about 500 students enrolled. He said the buyer purchased the property based on Lakewood Ranch's reputation for growth and the overall demand in the community for classroom space for a growing population.

"I don't think they even knew where Lakewood Ranch was," Black said of Hemisphere.

The sale is the second in as many months of a Manatee County charter school property. On March 7, Palmetto Charter School paid $3.5 million to Church on the Rock to buy its 27,700-square-foot school building and 7.5 acres around it.

The school previously leased the property.

Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter can be reached at 941-745-7027, or on Twitter @MattAtBradenton.

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch charter school sells for $6.6 million ."