Chris Brown buys Main Street building

Business owner Chris Brown has increased his foothold in downtown Sarasota with the purchase of the property at 1410 Main St.

Brown, who bought the property from Harry Walia, said he didn’t have any particular vision for the building at this point in time.

“Like anywhere else, you want to try to find some quality tenants,” Brown said. “Right now, there's no immediate plan except to locate some quality tenants for Main Street”

Walia purchased a Siesta Key property from Brown for the exact same price — $1.35 million — on the same day that Brown made his purchase. Walia will take ownership of the building at 5214 Ocean Blvd.

When Brown purchased the Siesta Key building in January, he said it was just an attempt to accumulate as much Siesta Key real estate as he could. The property houses Used Book Heaven, Mount N Repair and Bonjour French Café.

Brown is also the owner of the building at 1400 Main St., another property formerly owned by Walia. The city’s Development Review Committee considered Brown’s proposal for a major encroachment at 1400 Main St. in August.

Brown has proposed a second-story outdoor gallery deck at that property, the triangular building at Five Points that formerly housed Patrick’s and Floribbean. The gallery frontage would be the first of its kind, city staff said, and there were several concerns about the lack of detail in the initial proposal.

Rather than hashing out those details in front of the DRC, Brown will go before the City Commission to first find out if commissioners are interested in approving the major encroachment.

Brown will eventually have to return to the DRC to get approval for the project but he said he wanted to test the mood of the commission before delving into the finer points of his proposal.

“We want to see what the response is,” Brown said. “If they don't want it, I understand, and we'll go in a different direction. If they do want it, great.”

Contact David Conway at [email protected].