A unit in Grand Bay sells for $700,000

The leading transaction for this reporting week of Nov. 9 through Nov. 13 was the $700,000 sale of Unit 342 in Building 3 of the six-building, 272-unit Grand Bay development. Doreen and Michael Fitt, of Kansas City, Mo., sold their condominium to Merle and Leonard Nelson, from Falmouth, Maine.

The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath apartment at 3030 Grand Bay Blvd. was constructed in 1998 with 2,143 square feet of living area. The Fitts bought the condominium new for $550,000 in January 1999.

Cedars West
Cynthia and Ross Alander, of Tampa, bought Unit 202 in Building A at the 56-unit Cedars West condominium, 5655 Gulf of Mexico Drive, for $570,000 from Morag Pridgen and Julie Pridgen Jameson, both of Lakeland, as joint tenants through their revocable trusts.

The two-bedroom, two-bath condo was constructed in 1975 with 1,274 square feet of living area.

Cedars East
Marie and Randall Olsen, of Broadview Heights, Ohio, sold their Unit 22 in the third section of the 93-unit Cedars East condominium on the bay side of 5600 Gulf of Mexico Drive to Linda and J. David Green, from Acworth, Ga., for $370,000.

The two-bedroom, two-bath condo at 830 Evergreen Way was constructed in 1991. The Olsens bought the unit for $290,750 in November 2002.

Whitney Beach bayside
John Crimalti purchased Unit 154 on the bayside of Whitney Beach at 6750 Gulf of Mexico Drive from Deborah Jo Berg, as successor trustee of the Paul Smith Jr. living trust, of San Marcos, Calif., for $305,000. The condominium previously sold for $162,500 in April 1994.

The late Paul Neal, father of prominent local developer and former state Sen. Patrick Neal, built the two-bedroom, two-bath condo with 1,367 square feet of living area in 1970.

The elder Neal purchased the Whitney Beach property 40 years ago from pioneer Key founders of the Whitney Beach Resort Cottages, the late Lora and Gordon Whitney. Today’s Whitney Beach condominium consists of 36 units on the Gulf side of Gulf of Mexico Drive and 103 on the bay side, or a total 139 condominium dwellings.

Two parking spaces for $225,000
At Water Club II, Frank Petralito, 1281 Gulf of Mexico Drive, bought two parking spaces, E-II-3 and E-II-4, for $225,000 from Margaret Watanabe, of Indianapolis.

Bird Key
Morgan Flaherty, of Old Saybrook, Conn., and Boca Raton, sold his Bird Key home at 336 Bob White Way to Barbel Wilkens for $565,000. The three-bedroom, two-bath house was built in 1972 with a swimming pool and 2,220 square feet of living area. Flaherty bought the home for $565,000.

Six sales this week
Real-estate sales on the keys started off with a bang the first week in November, with 15 transactions being recorded at the Manatee and Sarasota county courthouses, only to be followed by just six sales over the four-day Veterans Day week of Nov. 9 through Nov. 13.

Despite this, Key summer sales this year maintained a steady but modicum level throughout the normally slow off-season months. In the nearly six months from April 27 through Nov. 13, we have reported 302 transactions, of which no fewer than 57 have been for $1 million or more.

Thus, despite the prevailing economic conditions during this post-boom interregnum, the downturn has not lessened the market’s lure for coveted waterfront properties.

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.