The Commercial Real Estate Alpha Site

Date: June 15, 2010
by: Robin Hartill | Community Editor
The Wicker Inn property includes 10 rental suites and one cottage.

The Wicker Inn sold for $4.2 million Friday, June 11, according to Reid Murphy, who represented both the buyer and seller for the transaction. According to Murphy, the resort, which is located at 5581 Gulf of Mexico Drive, was listed on the MLS for just five days before it went under contract. The property was initially listed for $5.5 million.

“Beachfront is becoming harder and harder to come by,” Murphy said. “We negotiated it last weekend, and it closed immediately. It was the perfect scenario.”

The seller was U.S. Assets Group, a Sarasota company registered to Thomas Brown. The resort was purchased by a family who spends the winter in the area, Murphy said. At press time, their names were not available.

The property consists of 10 rental suites and one cottage, which range from one bedroom to three bedrooms. U.S. Assets Group purchased the property for $5.6 million in August 2006 and initially planned to transform the resort into Wicker Beach, a six-unit luxury condominium community with units priced from $3 million to $4 million. But, according to Murphy, the property will continue to operate as a resort.