Newsletter 143

NEWS FROM THE SUNCOAST …..

SARASOTA NAMED ONE OF TOP 10 BEST PLACES

Sarasota once again made a national publication’s list of the best places to live in America, moving up in the rankings this year. U.S. News & World Report has published its 2023-2024 Best Places to Live list, ranking the country’s 150 most populous metropolitan areas based on value, desirability, job market and quality of life, with Sarasota coming in at No. 5. It rose four spaces this year, after landing at No. 9 in 2022 and 2021. Sarasota was also the highest-rated area in Florida, with Naples right behind at No. 6 after falling off the Top 10 last year. Green Bay, Wisconsin, took the top spot this year, with Huntsville, Alabama; Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte in North Carolina; Colorado Springs and Boulder in Colorado; Portland, Maine; and Fayetteville, Arkansas rounding out the list. “This year’s rankings are a reflection of the current economic, social and natural factors that impact a place’s livability for its residents,” said U.S. News real estate editor Devon Thorsby in a statement. “People are considering more than housing when they look at an area’s affordability — they want to know how much goods cost in that area. The ever-present risk for severe weather and a community’s ability to recover — coupled with the area’s opportunities for social activities — are also taken into account when evaluating a best place to live.” For more on this story, courtesy of Sarasota Herald-Tribune, please click here: Sarasota One Of Top Ten Best

SARASOTA MALL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Sarasota Square Mall could soon have a face-lift, transforming the outdated, enclosed mall into a mixed-use property with up to 1,200 multifamily units, according to a plan filed with Sarasota County. Most of the enclosed mall would be demolished under the plan and the property reconfigured with three apartment or condo buildings behind the commercial space on the northern end of the 93.5-acre property. The plan appears to show space for a 40,000-square-foot grocery, as well as outparcel space ranging from a 3,500-square-foot drive thru to a 32,000-square-foot retail space. The plan does not include any projected tenants besides the three there. The JC Penney, Costco and AMC Theater would remain after the redevelopment effort. For years, the bulky, boxy enclosed retail environment which reached peak popularity in the ’80s and ’90s has fallen out of style with shoppers, as customers shifted to online buying or preferred going to newer, open-air shopping destinations. Still, Sarasota Square Mall kindles nostalgic memories for many long-time residents as the mall opened to widespread fanfare in 1977, heralded as the main gateway to Sarasota from the south and drawing shoppers from as far as Charlotte County. To read more on this story please click here: Sarasota Square Redevelopment

QUAY PROJECT FACES PUSHBACK

Despite one condo project stalling after a police probe opened in April affecting plans for One Park Sarasota, several other projects remain under construction or in design review at the 14.7-acre downtown development site known as The Quay. Kolter Urban‘s development application for blocks 7 and 8 in The Quay came before the Sarasota Planning Board where plans for a Ritz-Carlton branded sitewere met with critiques and several questions about elevation, waste disposal and public access before the developer’s attorney requested a continuance after the board appeared ready to oppose the developer’s plan. The Quay development spans several blocks west of Tamiami Trail, south of Boulevard of the Arts and north of the Fruitville Road roundabout. Blocks 7 and 8 are on the development’s western-most edge, which borders Sarasota Bay. The second Ritz-Carlton labeled property in The Quay development will be called Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota Bay. It’s conceived as a 78-unit condo building rising 19 stories. The project also includes a 9,100-square-foot private club. The project may be the first built using a part of the Sarasota development code that allows for an extra story of building height in exchange for additional parking, according to comments from a city planner. If you are interested in reading more, then please click here: Quay Project Pushback

ONE PARK INVESTOR CLEARED

A partner in a luxury condo project in downtown Sarasota who was reportedly being investigated for claims of improperly influencing public officials regarding the development of an 18-story, downtown high-rise has met with state investigators and been cleared of any wrongdoing, according to his defense attorney. Derek Byrd, a past president of the Sarasota County Bar Association and a criminal defense attorney, said “multiple representatives” from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have advised him that Jim Bridges is not the subject of any ongoing investigation. Bridges, a Sarasota resident and developer, has a financial stake in One Park Sarasota, a luxury condo project in The Quay Sarasota along the downtown bayfront. During an April 12 Planning Board meeting, a Deputy City Attorney Michael Connolly announced that Sarasota Police Department had opened an “active criminal investigation” into contacts between Planning Board Member Michael Halflants and a developer of One Park Sarasota. Halflants had sought advice from Connolly prior to the April 12 meeting regarding a meeting with Bridges that included discussion of the possibility that Bridges could hire Halflants for an unrelated project. Last week, the FDLE notified Sarasota police chief that they had “found no evidence of a crime” involving the meeting, but said the agency had reopened the investigation after new information had reached investigators. There’s more on this story here: One Park Investor Cleared

SARASOTA SEES RISE IN VEHICLE BURGLARIES

Sarasota has had an 11% increase in car burglaries this year with 10 of those involving stolen guns. Sarasota Police Department reported that there have been 106 car burglaries from the beginning of 2023 to April 17. Nine in 10 occur with unlocked cars. Ten guns were taken from the cars during that time frame. Within the same time frame of 2022, there were 95 car burglaries with 75 of those happening with unlocked cars. Six guns were taken from cars during that time frame.

Officers have been able to recover some of the guns from the burglaries with one of the 10 guns being recovered in 2023 and two of the six guns being recovered in 2022. Sarasota Police representative Genevieve Judge couldn’t say whether or not the guns were in plain sight or hidden inside the cars. “Whether it’s in their garage, just outside their house or they’re running into the store for a quick stop, we really want to encourage people no matter where they are to always lock their cars,” Judge said. Please follow the jump for more on this story: Rise In Vehicle Burglaries

TURTLE BEACH PROJECT BEGINS

A project that will replenish south Siesta Key’s eroded beaches has begun. 

Workers are going to add around 92,000 cubic yards of sand to the key to repair damage from Hurricane Hermine in 2016. During the two-month project, which began recently, trucks will transport the sand to the beach. Sarasota County staff said some beach access points at Turtle Beach Park may be closed off. Some parking areas at the park will remain accessible, while others will be marked or cordoned off. Traffic delays and lane shifts are possible. The county asks that community members pay attention to the signs in the project area and allow for additional driving time. The new sand will come from a sand mine in Florida, according to Curtis Smith, the project manager. During the project, approximately 50 to 60 dump trucks will each make two trips a day to Turtle Beach Park, where they will deposit the sand in a large pile on the beach. Off-road trucks will then take some of the new sand to the end of the beach where they will start replenishment. They will add sand to that area before spreading and grading it and continuing the process along the beachfront. “The South Siesta Beach repair project will add sand to the shoreline, providing improved storm protection to the upland properties and a wider beach for recreation and wildlife use, such as sea turtle and shorebird nesting,” said Carolyn Eastwood, the county’s capital projects director, in a news release. There’s more on this story here: Turtle Beach Project Begins

ORCHESTRA BUYS LAND FOR NEW MUSIC CENTER

A little more than a year after it announced plans to build a new music center on a Fruitville Road site just west of Interstate 75, the Sarasota Orchestra recently closed on the property. “This is a milestone for the Sarasota Orchestra and the Sarasota community,” said President and CEO Joseph McKenna. “We’ve been working on this for nearly two decades and to now have closed on the property and have a place where the vision can blossom into the future is really exciting.”

The Orchestra paid $14 million for the property to Wal-Mart Stores East LP, which McKenna described as an “outstanding value for a 32-acre property in an ideal location.” There are still many steps ahead before the music center will be designed and built, but the organization plans to create a 1,800-seat concert hall. It also hopes to have the money to add a 700-seat flexible-use performance venue, along with multiple rehearsal and practice rooms, music storage, and space for offices and education programs. There could be more than one building on the site. Orchestra leaders have been talking with numerous other arts groups about sharing the use of the facilities. McKenna said, “Buildings of this nature generally take two years to design and engineer and three years to build.” But the organization is still working on a fundraising feasibility study, talking to donors, patrons, and foundations about potential fundraising goals before determining a design and setting a cost. Please click here for more: Orchestra Buys Land

PLAYERS, CITY CLOSE TO DEAL FOR THEATER

The Players Centre, which has been looking for a permanent new home for several years, is now focused on a venue that will keep it within the city of Sarasota limits. The Sarasota City Commission voted unanimously recently for an early framework of a lease agreement that would allow the area’s oldest performing arts organization to transform the nearly 60-year-old Payne Park Auditorium into a new theater space. The company would pay the city $100 per year for 10 years (with at least two 10-year renewals possible) and $1 from every ticket sold would go to the city. The Players would also offer the space for rentals to other nonprofit groups that don’t have venues of their own. The deal would bring some money to the city for the underutilized auditorium, which has been used as office space for the city’s parks and recreation department staff for the last few years. City Manager Marlon Brown told commissioners it was only occasionally rented for events before then. Commissioners voted to move forward with negotiations, which Players CEO William Skaggs said would proceed into the summer.  Please click on the link for more: Players Centre Close To Deal

INSURERS SLOW TO PAY AFTER IAN

Karen Sulprizio had praise for contractors who quickly came to her aid after Hurricane Ian ravaged her home on Fiesta Drive last fall. Roofing Pros USA quickly came out to tarp her roof – which was only 10 days old when Ian hit in late September – and Quality Air was out within a week to replace her damaged air conditioner. But more than seven months since the storm hit, she is still waiting for Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to settle her claim so contractors can address the repairs. Initially she was told that an estimator assigned to her home wasn’t showing up at jobs and had to be replaced. Meanwhile Sulprizio, who has retained Orlando-based Payne Law to navigate her claim, has chased down contractors for estimates to repair her home and figures it could cost as much as $100,000 to fix it. Despite the tarps, the roof can’t be repaired until the insurance funds are finalized. Sulprizio said appraisers sent both by her attorney and Citizens have been at the house, but she has no idea what either side has conclude what repairs will cost. Because her case is not in litigation, the next step would be for a disinterested third party, known as an umpire, to weigh in. She is hopeful that the issue will finally be resolved soon. There’s more on this story here: Insurers Slow To Pay

GARDEN TESTS NEW WATERS

Just offshore of a quiet residential neighborhood on Siesta Key, a six-foot-tall metal structure sits on a small platform over the water. Inside, organic mushrooms are growing with the help of desalinated bay water. This contraption is called a garden pod. Developed by Parrish entrepreneur Todd Kleperis, the system uses renewable energy and bay water to create food. Kleperis’ startup company, Tekmara, plans to make more of these pods and sees them as a potential solution to global food needs. Kleperis said he was motivated to make the pod after his friend passed away a year and a half ago. He said his friend was a “big ocean supporter,” and Kleperis liked to talk with him about how they could save the planet. “When he died, I went forward on a mission to create something that’ll actually be a protection system for our coastlines,” he said, adding that it will create clean food, clean water and clean power. He sees the garden pods as a way to provide people with instantaneous information about the ocean, including the pH, salinity and alkalinity of a location. There are monitoring devices on the pod on Roberts Bay that track these metrics. Kleperis said drought will pose challenges for agriculture on the land in the future, so he believes that systems like his can help the world produce enough food. Kleperis, who has founded three other companies during his career, would like to partner with local restaurants and hotels on this new project. These businesses could, for instance, sign up for a year’s worth of production of mushrooms, and then serve the fungi to their customers. Kleperis is also planning to grow other kinds of produce in the pods. Click here for more: Garden Tests New Waters

CARIBBEAN KING CRABS USED FOR RESTORATION

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium will use nearly $7 million in federal grant money over the next four years to embark on a new, comprehensive approach to restore coral and the accompanying aquatic habitat along the Florida Reef Tract in the Florida Keys. Since December 2019 when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the $100 million plan to restore as much as 3 million square feet of coral on seven iconic reefs, the plan has been focused on the coral – specifically increasing the coverage on those seven reefs from what had been 2% to 25%. Michael Crosby, president & CEO of Mote, said the $7 million grant, announced April 24, signals a broadening of that philosophy to include the introduction of Caribbean king crabs. Over the next four years, scientists will plant 242,000 coral fragments and 34,000 Caribbean king crabs on 10 reef sites, the seven targeted by NOAA and three others. Scientists hope that the crabs will eat enough algae to make the environment more hospitable to the genetically resilient coral planted on the reefs. “This initiative is a much more holistic, community-based restoration effort as opposed to just focusing on coral species by themselves,” Crosby said. “Just as we changed the paradigm for coral restoration – science-based coral restoration – I think with this grant … we are going to change the paradigm for that holistic community restoration approach, which is very different from what has been done anywhere else.” Please click here for more: Caribbean King Crabs For Restoration

PRIVATE PICKLEBALL CLUB OPENS

In the two weeks The Pickleball Club has been open to the public, CEO Brian McCarthy has come to know the lengths people will travel to satisfy their pickleball passion. Miles, too. One member makes the drive from Tampa to play the country’s fastest growing sport in Florida’s only indoor pickleball facility. “That’s way out on the fringe,” McCarthy said. Two others play each other twice a day, every day.

“I would say that was on the fringe, too,” he said. But with a sport growing as fast as pickleball, the fringe doesn’t stay the fringe for long. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, the number of people playing pickleball grew by 159% over three years, to 8.9 million in 2022. It’s been the country’s fastest growing sport for three consecutive years. The 77-year-old McCarthy, a former commercial real estate developer, anticipated the sport’s growth and became the central figure behind the plan to have 15 such clubs built around the state. He currently has seven under development. The one in east Sarasota is McCarthy’s first, the 33,393-square-foot, $10-million facility, with 12 indoor courts, two covered courts, a pro shop, cafe, and video technology for live streaming and recording, is more than simply a place to play the sport. The club also has a partnership with Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating, the most accurate global rating system trusted by the world’s premier pickleball clubs, tours and professionals. DUPR is a way for players to get an accurate rating of their play, similar to a golf handicap. With The Pickleball Club being deemed an official DUPR facility, the data collected from players will allow the club to better organize skill levels in open play, allowing for the most competitive matches. The more DUPR-sanctioned events players attend, the more accurate the rating. There’s more to read here: Private Pickleball Club Opens

WHICH AREA HOSPITALS GOT AN A SAFETY RANKING?

Sarasota Memorial Hospital, HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital and HCA Florida Englewood Hospital all earned A grades in the spring safety report cards released recently by The Leapfrog Group. Sarasota Memorial Hospital and HCA Florida Englewood Hospital continued streaks of consecutive A grades, while Doctors Hospital built a new streak with its second consecutive A grade.

The Sarasota Memorial Hospital Venice campus, which opened in late 2021, has not been in operation long enough to be included in the rankings. DeSoto Memorial Hospital, which earned a B grade in the fall 2022 report card was not graded this spring. The spring report card reflects data from 2022. It also shows a national trend of increasing risk of three healthcare-associated infections, including including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – commonly known as MRSA – central line-associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections. To define the national trend, the Leapfrog Group compared this Safety Grade cycle’s infection data, which covered late 2021 and 2022, to the 2021 Safety Grades, covering the period immediately prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Those numbers spiked to a five-year high in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Safety Grades also show a continued decline in patient experience measures, which are reported by patients and correlated with patient outcomes. “This new update of Hospital Safety Grades shows that, at the national level, we saw deterioration in patient safety with the pandemic,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a prepared statement. There’s more on this story here: Which Area Hospitals Got A Safety Ranking?

IS SARASOTA NEARING IT’S ‘LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT’ MOMENT?

This is a recent Op-Ed from long time respected Sarasota Herald Tribune contributor Carrie Seidman.

Last week saw the release of another “best places to live” list that landed Sarasota in the top 10. U.S. News & World Report’s 2023-2024 ranking of the 150 most populous metropolitan areas across the country for value, desirability, jobs and quality of life put our town at No. 5, up from No. 9 last year and first among Florida cities. Earning a premiere position in these subjective rankings always delights those whose priority is growing our economy, tax base and tourist industry. But it’s worth considering how this ascension translates for those who already call Sarasota home. Has the actual experience of living here gotten better as we work our way up the list? It’s easy to fall in love with Sarasota at first sight. When, after a long day of interviews at the Herald-Tribune 13 summers ago, I spent an hour floating in the warm and clear Gulf waters considering whether to accept the job I’d just been offered, it wasn’t a tough decision. But since then, the Sarasota/Bradenton area’s population has ballooned by well over 100,000. The fiscal year 2021 marked an all-time high for the number of permits granted for construction of single-family homes in the county at more than 2,900. And although more than 700 condo units are planned or under development in the city, buyers are still outpacing development. Growth is inevitable in a place often referred to as “paradise.” But there’s a tipping point after which it’s hard to retain the qualities that made a town enticing in the first place. That – along with shifting politics statewide – has led some of us to consider whether Sarasota will remain the right fit for our future. So recently, I did what people often do when trying to make a decision about a partner, a house or a move: I made a list. Please click on the link for more on this Op-Ed: Is Sarasota Nearing It’s Love It Or Leave It Moment?