LBK homes sell for $5.7 million, $3.5 million

Two Gulfside Longboat Key homes on the Manatee County portion of the island sold this week for a combined $9.2 million.

Judy Kepecz-Hays, of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate’s Longboat Key office, sold the home at 6301 Gulf of Mexico Drive, for $5.7 million. Court Hoyle, of Exit Realty, represented the buyers.

The home was on the market for just 19 days before it went under contract, according to a prepared statement.

Earlier this week, the home at 6021 Gulf of Mexico Drive sold for $3.5 million. Reid Murphy, of Developers Realty Inc., represented both the buyer and seller.

Property records show that the $5.7 million sale is the highest amount paid for a single-family home on the Manatee County portion of Longboat Key since March 2009, when Basil Zirinis paid $7,125,000 for the estate at 5871 Gulf of Mexico Drive. It’s also the highest single-family home sale on the Key since the record $12.5 million sale of a Regents Court home in April 2011.

The 6,571-square-foot home at 6301 Gulf of Mexico Drive is located behind closed gates and sits on one acre on the Gulf of Mexico. The estate includes a separate three-bedroom guesthouse that is connected to the main home by a covered bridge.

The property last sold for $1.55 million in January 2000.

Longboat Key architect Robert Rokop designed the home, which homebuilder Whitehead Construction built.
Property records list the sellers are David and Mary Lynn Banning.

According to the news release, the new homeowners are from Texas and will use the home as a vacation residence.

“The luxury market has been very active over the past six months.  A product of buyer confidence in the relative stability of their assets, a real-estate market that is making the turn in value the national and international awareness of what a beautiful place Sarasota is for people to own a piece of real estate,” Kepecz-Hays said in the statement.

The property at 6021 Gulf of Mexico Drive totals 1.13 acres and has a 3,107-square-foot home that will be torn down, according to Murphy. It last sold for $5 million in May 2006.

He compares the landscaping of the property to that of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, with many tropical trees.

The sellers are Gerard and Christine Byrne, according to the Manatee County Property Appraiser’s website.
Neither buyers’ names were immediately available.