Seven-story, 24-unit condo proposed for Rosemary District

Plans for a seven-story, 24-unit residential building at Seventh Street and Cohen Way include replacing an existing multifamily building with a public park.

By Andrew Warfield
| 8:00 a.m. October 4, 2025

A rendering of Seventh & Central Condominiums fronting Seventh Street at the corner of Cohen Way.

Sarasota
News

With an address of 650 Central Avenue, Tampa and Sarasota-based Halflants + Pichette is proposing to redevelop the eastern end of the block into a seven-story, 24-unit residential building in the Rosemary District.

Currently dubbed 7th & Central Condominiums, plans are to construct the building at the northeast corner of Seventh Street and Cohen Way, mostly above a current stormwater retention area, and replace an existing residential building along Cohen Way with a public park. The L-shaped project made its second appearance before the city’s Development Review Committee on Oct. 1.

Seventh & Central Condominiums is planned to be built above this stormwater retention area. The multifamily building to the rear will be demolished as part of the project.

The commercial building fronting Central Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets will remain. The project area covers 1.12 acres zoned Downtown Edge.

The surface parking will be internal to the site, which serves both the existing residential and the businesses of the 650 Central Ave. building, will remain. All parking for the redevelopment will be located internal to the new building beneath townhomes, which will include green yards. The townhomes will be topped by condominiums.

No attainable units are proposed and vehicle access to the site will remain off Seventh Street.

Requested for the project is an administrative variance to allow trash carts to be lined up and collected along Seventh Street.

Code requires solid waste from residential developments of eight or more dwellings be placed on the premises or in an abutting alley.

A public park will replace this multi-family building along Cohen Way between Sixth and Seventh Streets as part of the Seventh & Central Condominiums redevelopment.

To that end, Halflants + Pichette has provided to the city a statement of unnecessary hardship based on conditions of the property in that there is no alley and space limitations will not accommodate the turning radius for refuse collection vehicles. The statement further reads denial of the variance would “severely limit the functional use of our property, forcing substantial reduction of parking and green area, which are central to our design.

The DRC required a third submittal of the project to address remaining comments. The project site is one block south of the Sarasota Housing Authority’s Lofts on Lemon.

author

Andrew Warfield

Andrew Warfield is the Sarasota Observer city reporter. He is a four-decade veteran of print media. A Florida native, he has spent most of his career in the Carolinas as a writer and editor, nearly a decade as co-founder and editor of a community newspaper in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.