EAST NAPLES —
Don’t plan on snapping up bargains anytime soon at the Big Cypress Marketplace – unless you want to buy the center itself.
Big Cypress, the flea market east of Naples on U.S. 41, was supposed to reopen in February, after going into receivership and ceasing operations in 2010.
A new operator, Innovative Property Management LLC, had a lease on the property and an option to buy it. Now, the deal has fallen through, according to both the seller and the prospective buyer, as well as the real estate firm that has the listing.
The loss of the center is secondary to Mark Hintz, president of Innovative Property Management. He is reeling from a greater loss – his son, Christopher Hintz, 21, died Feb. 29 in a car crash. His son also was his business partner in the venture.
“Right before my son died, we vacated the property,” Mark Hintz said. “We had a binding civil agreement, we had moved onto the site, and we were coming up with lots of vendors.”
Hintz said he thought they had a deal with the owners of the center, Suburban Bank of Elmhurst, Ill., but were unable to agree on the price.
Apparently the two sides were far apart. The marketplace property is listed at $5.5 million, said Craig Timmins of Investment Properties Corp. Naples, which is listing the property for the bank.
Innovative Property Management offered $2.5 million cash, Hintz said.
“We thought they might acquiesce to the price I was offering,” he said. “It went up at public auction in July 2011 for $1 million, and there were no bidders. It concerns me they wouldn’t take $2.5 million.”
Suburban Bank became owner of the property in July 2011 after it foreclosed in December 2010 on the loan extended to Basik Development LLC, the original developer of the center, bank president Donald O’Day said.
“Yes, we would like to sell it,” said O’Day, indicating it might not necessarily have to be for use as a flea market. “There’s been a lot of potential uses discussed. I don’t know what the most viable would be.”
With the economy appearing to be in better shape than when Big Cypress opened in October 2008, there could be potential in the property, four miles east of Collier Boulevard along U.S. 41 East in a rural, agricultural area.
“It’s a new structure, one of the larger vacant buildings in Collier County, and priced well below replacement cost,” Timmins said.
Hintz is working on other possible venues for multiple vendor operations, including the former Kmart building at the corner of Collier Boulevard and U.S. 41, and another in North Fort Myers, he said.
He still hopes to open a marketplace nearby.
“I’m in negotiations with another backer. We’ve handled everything with utmost integrity,” Hintz said.