Newsletter 116

NEWS FROM THE SUNCOAST …..

TWO GLAMOUR ESTATES FETCH OVER $6M EACH

Two glamorous waterside properties in the Sarasota area have been sold over the last few weeks for more than $6 million apiece. Premier Sotheby’s International Realty said recently that broker associate Thomas Netzel of its Sarasota office arranged the sale of the two exclusive properties with beach access. The family compound at 5541 Gulf of Mexico Drive was once owned by the late Sarasota philanthropist Betty Schoenbaum and her husband, restaurateur Alex Schoenbaum. It is one of the few family compounds on Longboat Key, Netzel said. The sale price was $6.75 million. On Casey Key, Netzel brokered the $6.25 million sale of a three-story, ultra-contemporary, gulf-to-bay house on the north end of the barrier island that has access to a private beach. To read more on this story, courtesy of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, please click here: Glamour Estates

HARBOR ACRES ESTATE FETCHES RECORD $13.3M

A luxury home with more than 206 feet of private waterfront access in Sarasota’s Harbor Acres has sold for the highest recorded sale price in the neighborhood’s history. The residence at 1452 Hillview Drive in Sarasota closed for $13.25 million last week. The home was so sought-after that the sale was negotiated and concluded before Kim Ogilvie of Sarasota real estate firm Michael Saunders & Company could even list it on MLS, the online platform for real estate sales. The house has almost $4 million in upgrades and functional design elements. It has smart-home technology and contemporary spaces, including a dining room with an LED-lit, temperature-controlled wine cellar, an open-air terrace with an infinity edge pool, and a 10-car drive-through garage. For more on this story, please click here: Harbor Acres

GOOD YEAR FOR LOCAL REAL ESTATE

Home sales in the Sarasota area held strong in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Premier Sotheby’s International Realty said recently that total sales volume in the Sarasota region was up 35%, from about $1.14 billion in 2019 to 1.54 billion last year. The number of regional transactions increased 21% from 1,899 to 2,296 in 2020, and the average sale price was $669,338 last year, an increase of 12% over $598,929 in 2019. Some of the significant sales recorded in Sarasota last year were the $11 million “Casa del Carnevale” residence at 139 South Washington Drive, a $10.5 million home on 825 Longboat Club Road, a $10.5 million Siesta Key estate at 7712 and 7660 Sanderling Road known as Aquadisia, a $6.8 million sale at 2613 Casey Key Road that was the most expensive residential sale on Casey Key in 2020 and a $13.25 million property at 4651 Gulf of Mexico Drive on Longboat Key, the site of Sage Longboat Key and highest-price land sale ever recorded on the island. There’s more on this story here: Real Estate

VAN WEZEL TO BE MASS VACCINATION SITE

The city of Sarasota has received preliminary approval for a mass vaccination clinic to be held at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, but details of when it will occur or how many doses will be available are not known now and may not be known for weeks. The approval means that the city will get vaccine doses to hold its own clinic, apart from other state efforts already underway in the area. With the initial go-ahead, the city now shifts to getting ready for when the time comes to hold the event – whenever that will be. “What we’re doing now is moving into the final stages of preparation,” Sarasota Mayor Hagen Brody, who has spearheaded the effort to get the clinic to the city, said recently. Please follow the jump for more on this story: Van Wezel Vaccination

COUNTY TO REVIEW SIESTA HOTEL PLANS

Three developers want to fundamentally change long-held intensity and density requirements on Siesta Key for their future hotel projects. Two want to drastically change height requirements on the barrier island. Recently, Sarasota County Commissioners approved the first phase of the process to potentially make that a reality by approving what’s called an “out of cycle” review of the comprehensive plan, the county’s long-range growth map. This essentially fast-tracks a review of the county’s long range planning documents because it is done outside of the county’s typical review process. The merits of the proposals – which would increase some development density, intensity and height restrictions on and off Siesta Key – will be discussed after public hearings and a staff analysis of the proposed hotels is completed. There’s more on this story: County Review Siesta Hotel Plans

PGA GOLF EVENT SHINES LIGHT ON LWR TOURISM

Since its inception, Lakewood Ranch, with its premier golf courses, out-of-this-world mansions, cute shops and perfectly crafted, insulated villages, has been an idyllic place to live for those who can afford it. But from a tourism standpoint, it hasn’t always been clear where this booming master-planned community fits as a place to bring visitors to the area. “We’ve been looking regionally at how we can bring tourism awareness to east county, specifically Lakewood Ranch,” Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said. “It’s a 35,000-acre master-planned development, No. 1 in the country – how do we showcase that?”Sarasota-Manatee has a major opportunity to showcase Lakewood Ranch – specifically, The Concession Golf Club – later this month, when the award-winning course will host the 2021 PGA Tour World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship Feb. 25-28. The PGA Tour held a preview event at The Concession on Thursday to discuss the coming event with local stakeholders and the media. Please click here for more: LWR Tourism

HURDLE CLEARED FOR HI HAT RANCH DEVELOPMENT

A blueprint for one of the largest housing projects ever planned in the rustic, wide open area east of Interstate 75 has been OK’d by Sarasota County’s planning board. The Planning Commission’s unanimous decision last week brought the owners of the 10,000-acre Hi Hat Ranch closer to its vision for replacing much of the rural landscape with a cluster of villages, retail shops and new schools 30 to 40 years from now, despite pleas from residents against moving forward. Opponents raised concerns about potential traffic, environmental impacts and other aspects of the proposal. They also argued that there were not enough details or proposed solutions to proceed with the plan to bring more than 13,000 new homes on a tract of land that stretches from Fruitville to Clark roads. But planning commissioners, who serve as an advisory board for the Sarasota County Commission that has the final say on development, insisted that the proposal to develop Hi Hat Ranch at this point is only the big picture. The finer details will be worked out later. Click here for more: Hi Hat Ranch Development

FOLLOW-UP STUDY RE: LOCAL SOCIAL SERVICES

Sarasota, a wealthy community often known as a top place for retirement and home to some of the country’s best beaches, may be lesser known to some for its thousands of nonprofit organizations. But Sarasota was singled out to participate in a new community study, in part, because of the robust network of nonprofits that exists here. The study, led by The Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center and a Colorado-based research company, is a follow-up to a 2017 study of Sarasota’s social services organizations. That study revealed that the 31 sampled Sarasota social services organizations received 82% in their trust scores, meaning there were high levels of trust among the organizations. There’s more here: Social Studies Study

BRINGING SENIORS BACK TO THE 50’S

Senior citizens with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia might not be able to remember the pancakes they had for breakfast, or the name of the nurse who’s been working with them for months. But when they hear the first few notes of a song they used to hum along to in their youth, it’s a different story. If a patient in cognitive decline hears a familiar song, for example, their faces might light up with the excitement that comes with recognizing something near and dear. The same thing can happen when they see a familiar movie from decades past, or when they visit a place that reminds them of somewhere that they used to know. “As (Alzheimer’s) progresses, what you often get is reminiscing, people talking about the past,” said Dr. Michael Mullan, executive director of the Roskamp Institute, a Sarasota research center focused on diseases of the mind. “They might talk about what they did in the 1950’s, or even in the 1990s and 1980s and so on. It’s an interesting feature of the disease.” A new type of senior center coming to Sarasota this summer uses a 1950’s aesthetic to help seniors struggling with cognitive decline find joy through those easily recallable memories. The facility, called Town Square, is a day center for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia designed with a 1950s theme. Florida TS1 LLC, a franchisee of Town Square, announced recently that it is bringing an 11,120-square-foot location to the Oaks Plaza shopping center at 3880 Central Sarasota Parkway. Construction will begin this month, and the center is expected to open over the summer. There’s more on this story here: Seniors Center Coming