Newsletter 26
Dear friends,
Everyone is abuzz about UTC, the new 880,000 square foot mall at University Town Center, which opens tomorrow!! The mall offers three anchor department stores, more than 100 other stores, 12 restaurants, 4,100 parking spaces 16 electric car charging stations, and valet parking.
Sure, the marketing machine for the mall is firing on all cylinders, however the opening seriously changes the shopping dynamic on the Suncoast.
Many of the retailers who formerly had shops in the tony Southgate Mall have now shuttered those locations and moved to UTC. Therefore, the wealthy who have homes on the Sarasota’s barrier islands (Siesta Key, Longboat Key, Bird Key etc) will now have to drive at least 30 minutes inland to UTC, which is located at the junction of I-75 interstate and University Parkway.
And then there’s the traffic ….. plans are underway to enhance the interchanges at University Parkway and I-75, however the intersection already experiences gridlock on a regular basis, and the mall’s not open yet!
The mall, anchored by a 160,000 square foot Macy’s, 180,000 square foot Dillards and 80,000 square foot Saks Fifth Avenue, brings many retailers to our area for the first time such as: Apple, Anthropologie, Free People and Bose. It does not have a food court, instead offering upscale sit-down restaurants as well as Sophie’s in Saks Fifth Avenue.
Get ready for quite the shopping experience! Click on this link for more: UTC Website
Why just visit? Become part of it all. Invest in a piece of paradise and plan your dream retirement. Anything is possible, and we can help make your dreams come true. Visit our website for more information on our services and how we can help: Suncoast Home Concierge
Here’s some recent Suncoast area news:
THE MODEST WATERSIDE RESIDENCE GETS RARER EVERY DAY: A small 863 square foot cottage near the northern tip of Siesta Key is one of only five homesteaded (lived-in by permanent residents) bay front or Gulf-front houses smaller than 1,600 square feet in Sarasota County, a community with about 1,500 on the bay or Gulf. Somehow, in the age of the tear downs, they have escaped ruin, representing the last vestiges of the modest beach house lifestyle that was so common along the Gulf Coast in the first half of the 20th century. Click on the link to read more from the Sarasota Herald Tribune: The Fall Of The Small
MOTE’S GOLDEN EGGS: A few years ago, Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium set out to change the way seafood reaches the tables in America, and researchers believe that they’re close to doing just that. At the nonprofit’s 200-acre farm in rural Sarasota County, scientists are cultivating popular species of fish through new methods that are less expensive and more friendly to the environment than current practices. Already, Mote’s farm is harvesting and packaging tons of caviar from Siberian sturgeon for commercial distribution. Mote researchers hope to develop a model that will allow more aquaculture farms to meet the growing demand for seafood, while restoring native fish populations in Florida and reducing dependence on large-scale commercial fishing. Click here for more: Golden Eggs
BANNER YEAR FOR SEA TURTLES: Along the Southwest Florida coast and nationwide, endangered sea turtles have had a highly successful nesting season. As of last month, 2,459 sea turtle nests were counted within a 35-mile stretch of local shorelines from Longboat Key to Venice. That’s good news for the several species of sea turtles living in the Gulf of Mexico. All of them are listed as either threatened or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There’s more here: Nest Numbers
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