THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 30, 1995 TAG: 9509300389
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Two former owners of Virginia Beach-based grocery wholesaler Sandler Foods and a partner have acquired a 1,760-acre tract in Florida for residential and commercial development.
A partnership between Steven and Art Sandler and Miami-based developer Atlantic Gulf Communities Corp. bought the property in Broward and Dade counties from the Blockbuster unit of Viacom Inc., a spokesman for the Sandlers said Friday.
Atlantic Gulf Communities will develop and manage the project, which is expected to generate $130 million in revenue over five to six years, spokesman Raymond L. Gottlieb said.
The property was attractive because of the robust demand for new homes in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale corridor, Gottlieb said.
Development of the project, which will include a business park, is scheduled to begin next year. The Sandlers' plans call for developing and selling parcels to homebuilders and commercial developers.
The Sandler family, which built a modest fish business in downtown Norfolk into an interstate food distribution company, also has been active in real estate investment for several years. In the early 1990s, Steven and Art Sandler became major homebuilders in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
In 1990, the brothers also began developing a large tract in Fairfax County with 1,000 home sites. All of the sites have been sold and that project is scheduled to wind up early next year, Gottlieb said.
The Fairfax property was one of several tracts that the Sandlers purchased from banks and from the Resolution Trust Corp., the federal agency responsible for disposing of the assets of failed savings and loan associations.
In 1989, the Sandler family sold a minority stake in Sandler Foods to Sara Lee Corp., a consumer products company that owns a food distribution business. The family sold its remaining interest in Sandler Foods to Sara Lee in July. by CNB