L.A. Fitness buys old Malio's block for $4.8 million

TAMPA

One of Tampa's most coveted pieces of property will go from selling steaks and cocktails to helping people burn off calories.

The former Malio's Steakhouse at 301 S. Dale Mabry Highway has officially been sold to L.A. Fitness of Irvine, Calif., which plans a multi-story fitness complex.

Sales price: $4.8 million, according to county records.

"It is one of the best commercial sites in the Tampa Bay area," said Patrick Berman, a commercial real estate broker with Cushman & Wakefield, who was not involved in the transaction.

The site encompasses a full city block on one of the busiest streets in Tampa, in an especially affluent neighborhood where the biggest impediment to new development has been a lack of open space.

The sale price represents "a really strong price," Berman said, adding that the deal could help boost a moribund commercial real estate market.

"I can't think of anything else that's gone for that high a square-foot price in two years … For a long time, you could not give land away."

The site had been home to Malio Iavarone's signature steakhouse for decades, and became a magnet for celebrities, politicians and professional athletes.

In 2005, Iavarone rented the site to a construction supply company that planned a new headquarters and paid nearly $2 million for the option. That project never materialized.

Meanwhile, Iavarone had already moved his steakhouse downtown to the Rivergate Towers building where it now operates in a space with sweeping river views.

Word of the L.A. Fitness project has been circulating among real estate brokers and developers, most recently because building permit applications have been filed that call for a two-story health club with four levels of parking.

The official sale was recorded by the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser's office, but the price tag has not become widely known because the transaction paperwork has not yet been scanned and posted online.

A copy of the deed from the appraiser's office lists the $4.8 million figure in a hand notation to calculate the appropriate document stamp tax.

Officials with L.A. Fitness did not return calls seeking comment.