Buyers flocking to downtown Sarasota development

The foundation permit has been submitted for one of the next luxury high-rises slated for downtown Sarasota, and buyer attention indicates the developer isn’t building too far ahead of demand.

MK Equity President Matt Kihnke, one of the owners of 300 S. Pineapple Ave., said Gilbane Building Co. should break ground on the $11 million Sansara next month. The 10-story, 17-unit condominium is slated for completion by April 2016, and 10 units have already been reserved, according to Michael Saunders & Co. Head of Sales Jonathan Abrams.

“It’s been incredible over the last month,” Kihnke said. “The buyers are definitely coming — I think part of it is the weather up north.”

Sansara fits into a boom of downtown project proposals, many of which have come back to life after being stifled during the recession.

In November, construction crews demolished a gas station that sat undeveloped on the site for for nearly a decade, while work continues on the mixed-used project One Palm less than one block away. The $19 million Jewel development continues to go vertical on Main, and real estate investor Ron Chandler has pitched an eight-story luxury condominium on Dolphin Avenue in the heart of Burns Court.

“It’s kind of a zen, meditative connotation,” Kihnke said of 300 S. Pineapple Ave. in a previous interview with the Sarasota Observer. “I like the definition of it. It’s a rebirth, and I think that’s kind of a rebirth of that piece of property.”