xByte CEO buys 30 riverfront acres in Northwest Bradenton for $3M
BRADENTON -- A local tech entrepreneur has agreed to pay $3 million to buy one of the last significant pieces of undeveloped riverfront land in northwest Bradenton, land owned for decades by the foundation that funds the Bishop Animal Shelter.
The buyers were Tom Santilli and his wife, Tommie Lee, of Bradenton. Tom Santilli is the founder and CEO of xByte Technologies, a Bradenton-based reseller of refurbished Dell computer servers.
Under the terms of the Jan. 6 purchase deal the couple struck with Bishop for the acreage at 9000 21st Ave. NW, the foundation will carry $2.5 million of the purchase price in the form of a mortgage, according to documents filed with Manatee County.
In buying the land, the Santillis have effectively added 30 acres of forest to a 6-acre Manatee River estate next door that they bought out of foreclosure in 2012 for $400,100. The property, which the bank seized from William Manfull a little more than three years ago, includes an 8,500-square-foot, four-bedroom home built in 1993.
Tom Santilli did not respond to a request for comment on what he intends to do with his newly purchased acreage. In its comprehensive land use plan, Manatee County zones the land for residential development, but also designates it as a hurricane evacuation zone. To the west is a tree nursery.
Samantha Dominis, a spokeswoman for the Bishop Animal Shelter, said shelter management and members of its foundation's board of directors declined to comment on the sale of the land.
Bishop is a private shelter organization that has been taking in stray animals and adopting them out since 1958. Its founders, Edward and Lillian Bishop, established the shelter on 40 acres formerly operated by the Bishop family as a citrus grove. That land and the shelter remain intact at 5718 21st Ave. W.
The 30 acres that changed hands this month has been the site of some recent clearing activity. Last fall, county code enforcement staff visited the property, acting on a citizen complaint.
Joel Christian, the county's environmental program manager, said at the time that the work complied with county regulations.
The work, he said, was not associated with a development application and was on land he characterized as being largely populated by
invasive plant species.
Christian did note that the land hosts some wetlands.
The work inspected by the county did not impinge on those wetlands, he said.
The Santillis own or control several other properties in Manatee County, including xByte's 25,600-square foot warehouse facility at 4614 19th Street Court E. and more Manatee riverfront residential property in Palmetto, according to county and state records.
Undeveloped land available for development has become more scarce in northwest Bradenton recent years.
In 2003, Manatee County purchased 482 acres from Robinson Farms for $10 million.
It later developed the land into the Robinson Preserve nature park.
The county also received another 149 acres of preserve land in 2012 adjoining that first purchase from a conservation organization.
About 50 acres still owned by Robinson Farms south of the preserve are expected to be developed into new home sites.
The vacant parcels that remain sell at a premium -- well above what the former Bishop land sold for.
According to Jody Shinn, a Realtor with the Bradenton office of Michael Saunders & Co., four river lots about an acre in size on Riverview Boulevard and DeSoto Memorial Highway have sold in the past year for from $767,000 to $918,000.
Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027 or on Twitter @MattAtBradenton.
This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 7:25 PM with the headline "xByte CEO buys 30 riverfront acres in Northwest Bradenton for $3M ."