Key sale marks record $12.5 million

Record-breaking news: A home sold last week for a Longboat Key record price of $12.5 million — the highest amount paid for a single-family home in Longboat Key history and the third-highest sales price in Sarasota County history.

The sale closed Thursday, April 21, about six months after Reid Murphy, of Developers Realty Inc., listed it for $17.5 million. Louis Wery, of Coldwell Banker Real Estate’s Longboat Key office, represented the buyer. A warranty deed filed Monday at the Sarasota County Courthouse lists P&W Charters LLC, a Florida limited-liability company, which has a post office address in Cheshire, England, as the buyer of the home. Siegfried and Eva Schulte, of Rochester Hills, Mich., were the sellers.

The home is located at 825 Longboat Club Road behind the Islandside gates of the Longboat Key Club and Resort in the Regent Court neighborhood, which has just eight residences. According to Murphy, homes in the neighborhood are rarely available. The last Regent Court property to go on the market was the home at 809 Longboat Club Road, which was listed at $13.85 million in 2005. (The listing changed ownership in a non-sale transfer in 2007, according to the Sarasota County Property Appraiser’s website, sarasotaproperty.net.) Seven of the eight existing properties in Regent Court sold preconstruction for prices ranging from $1,608,000 to $3.85 million between 1992 and 2000, according to property records. The only prior sale of an existing home recorded in property records occurred in February 1996, when the home at 891 Longboat Club Road sold for $2,425,000.

“It’s such a sought-after, rarely available area,” Murphy said.

The Schultes purchased the 1.3-acre property with a 150-foot Gulf-front beach preconstruction for $2.05 million in 1994. The 11,961-square-foot home was built in 2002 with five bedrooms, six bathrooms an infinity pool and spa that overlook the Gulf and other luxury features, such as mahogany, glass double doors that open to a custom grand staircase, main, catering and guest kitchens and split floor plan that separates the master living quarters from the four guest suites.

“It’s one of the premier homes on the west coast of Florida,” Murphy said.

According to Wery, just two single-family properties in Sarasota County have sold at higher prices than the home at 825 Longboat Club Road, both of which were located in Lido Shores: the property at 1219 Westway Drive, which consisted of two lots and a home, which sold for $13,218,933 in December 2003, and the property at 1067 Westway Drive, which consisted of a single lot and residence, which sold for $13 million in March 2006. Wery said that the sale price of the Regent Court home shows the desirability of the beachfront location behind the Key Club gates with close proximity to Sarasota and its arts scene.

“It’s good for Sarasota,” Wery said. “I think it shows that Sarasota is a unique spot.”

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected]

ON THE MARKET
The following properties are the top listings on the Sarasota MLS as of April 26:
• 411 N. Casey Key Road — $19 million
• 8250 Sanderling Road, Siesta Key — $14.5 million
• 600 N. Jackson Road, Venice — $13.5 million
• 5965 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key — $11.5 million
• Fiddler Bayou home on north Siesta Key — $10,975,000