Longboat Key - Positano condo sells for $2 million

Despite the Thanksgiving holiday week shortened by two days, there were a respectable, eight, key real-estate sales recorded at the Sarasota and Manatee county courthouses between Nov. 23 and Nov. 25.

Leading the way was the $2,025,000 sale of the Gulf-front condominium Apartment 305 at the 29-unit Positano, site of the former Longboat Key Holiday Inn, along the Key’s north beach at 4975 Gulf of Mexico
Drive.

The sale of Unit 305 was the last of the original 29 Positano condominiums. Positano was constructed in 2007, comprising five buildings on a 10-acre beachfront tract with a 750-foot frontage on the Gulf of Mexico.

An investment group known as Heartbeat LLC, of Sarasota, purchased the condominium from Positano LLC, of Palmetto. Signing the deed of sale for Positano were co-managers Timothy Morris and Jeffrey Gravely, as well as Park Place Developers LLC member Wallace Devlin and LBK Development Partners LLC.

The three-bedroom, three-bath apartment has 3,123 square feet of living area.

Water Club II
The week’s second-largest transaction was the $1.25 million that Joyce Sambursky paid to Pamela and Jeffrey Wilson, of Loudon, Tenn., for their condominium 1006 in the 86-unit Water Club II tower, 1281 Gulf of Mexico Drive.

The two-bedroom, three-bath apartment has 2,665 square feet of air-conditioned living area. The Wilsons bought the unit new for $1,111,200 in August 1999.

Pelican Harbour & Beach Club
There was one transaction at Pelican Harbour in which Elizabeth and Douglas Elder, of Sarasota, sold their Unit 402 on the bay side at 4241 Gulf of Mexico Drive to co-trustees Anthony Dewhurst and John Tomlinson, of Anderton Chorley, Lancashire, England, for $710,000.

The three-bedroom, two-bath condo was constructed in 1980 with 1,660 square feet of living space. The Elders paid $245,000 for the apartment in September 1986.

Beachplace I
Rhonda and Richard Sternberg, of Hamilton, Ohio, bought Unit 20 in Building 2 at Beachplace I from Rosemary Kirchner, of Manasquan, N.J., for $650,000. Located in the 336-unit, Arvida-built Beachplace condo complex at 1135 Gulf of Mexico Drive, the two-bedroom, two-bath apartment was built in 1980 with 1,172 square feet of living space. The property last sold for $112,000 in 1980.

Seaplace I
Beryl and Barry Lipoff, of Sarasota, sold their Unit M1-106-F at Longboat Key’s largest condominium complex, the 461-unit, Arvida-built Seaplace, to Dennis Kelly, of Hamilton, N.Y., for $290,000. The two-bedroom, one-bath apartment at 2045 Gulf of Mexico Drive was constructed in 1974 with 928 square feet of living area. The Lipoffs bought the condominium for $575,000 in July 2005.

Portobello
A sale was recorded at Portobello, 3240 Gulf of Mexico Drive, for the purpose of refinancing the condominium Unit B-401, for the obviously below-market price of $89,500, as declared on the deed, with $626.50 in Florida state documentary stamps affixed.

This was an in-house conveyance, because the seller, Homestead Partners Ltd., is headed by the buyers, President David Zapf and Secretary Connie Zapf, of Dayton, Ohio.

The two-bedroom, two-bath condo was built in 1975 with 1,519 square feet of living space.

Bird Key
In another intra-family transaction, ownership in the Bird Key home at 221 Bird Key Drive was changed to provide 90% ownership for Lisa Jacobs. To accomplish this, Eric Wostl, of Burr Ridge, Ill., and Wolfgang Wostl, 1945 Gulf of Mexico Drive, sold their 45% interest in the Bird Key home to Lisa Jacobs for $373,500, which leaves each Wostl with a 5% ownership in the property.

The three-bedroom, two-bath home with a swimming pool was one of the first built when Arvida opened the Key for development in 1962.

Lido Beach
Mark Mullen, of Livermore, Calif., sold his vacant beachfront lot on north Lido Beach, at 168 Bryant Drive, for $400,000 to Thomas McArdle and Glenn Burke as joint tenants from Hazlet, N.J.

Correction
In the Dec. 3 column, it should have read Patrice and Ronald Pantello, of Tangerine Bay Club, purchased the eight-year-old Country Club Shores Unit III home at 560 Hornblower Lane for $2.1 million from Sylvia and Richard Gilliam, of 580 Wedge Lane.

The home has four bedrooms, five baths and a swimming pool with a total 4,199 square feet of air-conditioned living area and 5,748 square feet under roof.

Kent Chetlain is a veteran Florida journalist and historian, a former Manatee County commissioner and a holder of a Florida real-estate license. He has chronicled real-estate activity in this area since 1957.