Key Real Estate

The summer-ending last week of August climaxed with the sale of an Orchid Beach Club Residence for $2.35 million, but left a dearth of just five other realty transactions on the keys, one of which was a parking space at Water Club II.

With the opening of schools and the immediate impact of the government’s Cash for Clunkers program, area Realtors can hopefully look forward to the approaching winter tourist season when, historically, annual sales reach their peak. This will be the fourth winter season since the real-estate bubble burst in 2005-06.

Because everything seems to revolve in cycles, one can expect a turnaround within the foreseeable future.

Recent economic signs have been encouraging: increased building starts and an upturn in Key realty sales this summer, which have bucked the usual off-season summer slowdown.

Three of six sales on Lido Beach
The lure of our Gulf beaches is reflected in the week’s sales recordings because half of the six transactions were on Lido Beach, led by the $2.35 million sale of Unit C-601 at the twin 11-story Orchid Beach Club Residences by Roseann Morrison, of Westerville, Ohio, to Carol and Kevin Kelleher, from Belle Harbour, N.Y.

The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath condominium has 4,229 square feet of living space. Located at 2050 Ben Franklin Drive on Lido Beach, Orchid Beach Club was constructed in 2005, the final year of the recent realty boom. Its two buildings have 54 dwelling
units.

Morrison purchased the condominium new for $2.61 million in September 2005.

Lido Regency
Jeffrey King and his wife, Monique De Kleermaeker, of Binghampton, N.Y., bought Unit 6-B at Lido Regency condominium, 1700 Ben Franklin Drive, from Randall Trudelle, of Sarasota, for $328,000.

The one-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath apartment was built in 1968 and has 1,059 square feet of living area. Trudelle bought the condominium for $55,000 in January 1992.

Lido Towers
Further up the beach at Lido Towers, 1001 Ben Franklin Drive, William Northrup, of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., sold his Unit 101 to Patricia and Gregory Pratt, from Middletown, Ohio, for $252,000. Northrup paid $30,000 for the condo back in October 1992.

The apartment was constructed in 1980 with two bedrooms and two baths and 1,293 square feet of living area.

Fairway Bay
Dulce Crain, formerly of Margate, N.J., bought Unit 1301 in Building 13 at the 288-unit Fairway Bay complex, 1926 Harbourside Drive, from Lois and Edmund Pressman, of Villanova, Pa., for $412,000.

The three-bedroom, three-bath condo was constructed in 1982 and has 2,097 square feet of air-conditioned living space. It last sold for $510,000 in April 2004.

Water Club
At the 86-unit Water Club Tower II, 1281 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Frank Petralito paid $75,000 to Margaret Adams McQuade for her parking space EII52.

Bird Key
The lone sale on the 510-lot Bird Key was the transaction in which Stephen Culp surrendered his 75% interest in the home at 613 Owl Drive by signing a quit-claim deed to Pamela Tenaerts, 25% owner of the property, for $443,100.

Built in 1966, the three-bedroom, three-bath home with a swimming pool has 1,890 square feet of living area. The residence last sold for $435,000 in May 2002.

142 key sales in 13 weeks
Realty sales on Longboat, Lido, St. Armands, Coon and Bird keys gathered momentum as the summer progressed. There were 61 sales recordings during the first six weeks between June 1 and July 10. The next seven weeks between July 13 and Aug. 28, there were 81 transactions recorded at the Sarasota and Manatee County courthouses.

Thus, a total 142 sales were recorded between June 1 and Aug. 28. Of those 142 transactions, 27 were for $1 million or more.

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.

To view new building permits issued from the week of Aug. 28 through Sept. 3, please click on the link below:

BUILDING PERMITS