Affordable housing development finally leaves the station

Just as Mark Vengroff offered closing remarks at the Jan. 15 ceremonial groundbreaking for Sarasota Station, a DJ hired for the event blared “Eye of the Tiger” over the speakers, the symbolic gesture at the request of members of his One Stop Housing organization.

After all, the event marked the culmination for the CEO and managing partner's successful navigation of the bureaucratic and financial jungle necessary to bring the vision of his late father, Harvey, to reality. 

Or it may have simply been because, “It’s kind of my theme song,” Vengroff said.

Whatever the reason, dozens of One Stop Housing staff, elected officials, philanthropic leaders and supporters huddled beneath a tent amid a rare blast of damp, winter weather to celebrate the beginning of the end of the nearly two-decade quest to bring to fruition the 100% affordable housing project.

“For those of you who knew my father, he was extremely focused on what he believed that if you work, you deserve a clean, safe and affordable roof over your head,” Vengroff told the crowd. “About 20 years ago he purchased this land with his business partner, Bob Williams, with the intention to build workforce housing.”

Photo by Andrew Warfield

That grand plan to build upwards of 500 affordable housing units on the former industrial property at the eastern edge of the Park East neighborhood off Fruitville Road met with years of government resistance, red tape and fiscal reality. Since 2015, the vision evolved through multiple iterations as the business model of One Stop Housing was simultaneously built into vertical from site engineering to property management, and every development step in between.

The result is an affordable housing project of 202 apartment homes that One Stop Housing will build for a fraction of the cost of a general contractor. Vengroff said the concrete block and steel construction of Sarasota Station will cost approximately $185 per square foot to build, that compared to the average cost of $320 to $372 per square foot for stick built. That includes higher-end finishes such as granite countertops, custom cabinets and tile flooring. 

Courtesy image

“We're building this at about 40% below cost, but when it's done and we do the ribbon cutting you’ll get the tour,” Vengroff said at the groundbreaking. “You’ll see the granite countertops and the beautiful finishes. This is going to be truly worthy for those working folks who really deserve something like this.”

Residents will also have access to a clubhouse, elevators, indoor corridors and the wraparound services offered by OSH affiliate, One Stop Cares.

For working folks

Among those “working folks” will be essential service workers such as school system employees and law enforcement. Set aside are 25 units for the Sarasota County School District and 20 more for the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, both reserving the apartments on a priority basis for their employees. 

Qualifying households will earn 60% below and 80% below area median income. 

But Sarasota Station won’t merely be an island of low-income housing. To make the project work, it is taking advantage of the Florida Live Local Act, and is officially the first such project underway in Sarasota. The state law permits additional density for a single project equivalent to that of any zoning district within a one-mile radius, providing it includes requisite affordable housing units.

Enter David Weekly Homes and its plan to build 69 market rate townhomes on the south end of the site. One Stop Housing and Weekly applied together as a single project with Live Local facilitating the density without rezoning the property. The townhome portion of the development will replace the Vengroff Williams Inc. call center, the building having been recently vacated and its staff relocated to Lakewood Ranch.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

Weekly’s purchase of 3.5 acres brought $8.84 million to the project, and Sarasota County approved $15 million in first-round Resilient SRQ funding, both according to Vengroff critical to providing the capital needed for the project.

In all, Vengroff and company assembled $41.4 million to build the $29.6 million project, the balance in soft costs not associated with construction. 

“You can't talk about Mark too much,” said Sarasota Interim City Manager Dave Bullock. “He took an idea and a concept, and he came in with his reasoned approach, putting teams together that made sense, and he's creating a project that's going to serve the community for many, many years, probably generations. So thank you, Mark. It’s an unusual talent that you have. We're fortunate to have you here.”

Although his son is finishing what he started, Harvey Vengroff will have an everlasting presence at Sarasota Station. The finishing touch, Mark Vengroff told the Observer, will be a bronze statue of his father, perhaps complete with his signature red T-shirt emblazoned with the One Stop Housing phone number. On the pedestal, he said, will be a signature Harvey Vengroff saying on the pedestal that has yet to be determined.

“I’m still trying to come up with that,” Vengroff told the Observer. “It will be something he would say like, ‘I don’t speak Section 8.’”