Longboat Key - Realty sales on Key rise to get in under deadline

In the four weeks from Nov. 30 through the Christmas holidays, 51 real-estate sales were recorded at the Sarasota and Manatee county courthouses. Of these, 18 were for more than $1 million. The sales-recording surge can be attributed in large part to the desire to take advantage of tax savings derived by purchases and sales before the end of calendar year 2009.

For the week preceding Christmas there were 13 sales, including five for $1 million or more. Longboat Key accounted for eight of these sales, including two condominiums and one single-family home for more than $1 million each.

Bird Key
Topping the list of the week’s 13 sales was the vacant Bird Key lot on Sarasota Bay at 360 W. Royal Flamingo Drive, which Chartwell Property Development & Investment Inc., of Osprey, sold to Lynn and Jimmy Hayes, of Atlanta, for $1,935,000. Chartwell bought the property for $3 million in July 2005.

$1.25 million for Bird Key home
Another Bird Key property topped the $1 million plateau, this one a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home with a swimming pool at 454 Partridge Circle. Bruce Strongman’s Tuli Design Inc. sold the 35-year-old residence with 3,080 square feet of living area to Anita Cartolano for $1.25 million. The home last sold for same amount in May 2002.

There was one other transaction on Bird Key, the sale of a single- family home at 118 Seagull Lane, in which a Riverside, Conn., couple, Craig Vorselen and his wife, Molly O’Hare-Gleason, purchased the residence from Carmen Guillermety, of Miami, for $894,000. The three-bedroom, two-bath home was built in 1970 with 2,104 square feet of living area. The house last sold for just $120,000 in November 1974.

Regent Place
The second-largest transaction of the week occurred on Longboat Key at the 36-unit, 10-story, twin-tower Regent Place, 675 Longboat Club Road. Teresa and Charles Cannon, of Wilmette, Ill., paid $1.9 million to Stampede Overseas Ltd., a Bahamian corporation, for its Condominium 23-B in Regent Place Tower II.

The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath condominium was built in 1995 with 3,139 square feet of living space. Stampede Overseas purchased the condo for $2 million in January 2008.

L’Ambiance
Karin and George Pasini, of Bradenton, paid $1.4 million to Karen and Edward Friedman, from Scarsdale, N.Y., for their Unit D-405 at the 138-unit L’Ambiance, 415 L’Ambiance Drive. The two-bedroom, two-bath and two half-bath condo was constructed in 1992 with 2,634 square feet of living space. The condo last sold for $1,275,000 in June 2000.

Sabal Cove home
Toby Gilfix, 3060 Grand Bay Blvd., sold her five-bedroom, four-bath home in Sabal Cove on Lot 1 of the 42-lot development at 3302 Sabal Cove Lane to Myrna and John Blume for $1,075,000. The home, including the swimming pool, was constructed in 1996 with 3,993 square feet of living area.

Beaches of LBK-South
Barbara Raphael purchased Unit 803 at the 74-unit Beaches of Longboat Key-South, 775 Longboat Club Road, from Suzanne and Jack Shilling, of Murraysville, Pa., for $975,000. The three-bedroom, three-bath apartment was built in 1984 with 2,122 square feet of living space. The Shillings bought the condo for $660,000 in February 1998.

Bay Isles, Unit 2
Trish and Kenneth Sanborn, of 65 Lighthouse Point Drive, sold their Bay Isles home at 3581 Bayou Circle to Carrie and Thomas Rodgers IV for $950,000. The three-bedroom, three-bath home with a swimming pool was constructed in 1981 with 3,316 square feet of living area. The Sanborns previously bought the home for $700,000 in August 2000.

Sunset Beach
In an intra-family transaction at the 65-unit Sunset Beach on Longboat Key, 775 Longboat Club Road, Baerbel and Martin Bobzien, 2109 Gulf of Mexico Drive, sold their Unit 1304 in Building 1 to Hans Bobzien, of Refrath, Germany, for $405,000. The two-bedroom, two-bath condo was constructed in 1984 with 1,358 square feet of living space.

Sarasota Outrigger Resort
Wayne Alexander, of St. Charles, Mo., purchased Unit 6 at the 10-unit Sarasota Outrigger Resort, 5155 Gulf of Mexico Drive, from Nassim Matar and his wife, Amy Reid, of Falls Church, Va., for $265,000. The compact 624-square-foot apartment has one bedroom and one bath. It was built in 1977. The Matars bought the condo for $495,000 in February 2005.

Coquina Beach on Longboat
The Bank of America N.A., of Baltimore, sold four lots and a 56-year-old two-bedroom, one-bath home with 898 square feet of living area at 617 Neptune Ave. in the Coquina Beach subdivision on Longboat Key by special warranty deed to West Star Interiors Inc. for $132,500.

Lido Beach Club
Unit 1103 at the Lido Beach Club was sold for $615,000 by Debra Comber, sole surviving trustee of the C. Raymond Burkhart Trust, 1800 Ben Franklin Drive, to Ronald Koopman, of Forsyth, Ill., for $615,000. Located at 1212 Ben Franklin Drive, the two-bedroom, two-bath condo has 1,358 square feet of living area.

The condo last sold for $185,000 for in December 1988.

St. Armands Key
In an all-Louisville, Ky., transaction, Raymond Shircliffe sold his home at 419 Madison Drive to Katherine and C. Ross Morrison for $519,000. The residence was built in 1973 with two bedrooms, two baths and a swimming pool with 1,504 square feet of living space.

This property was last sold 40 years ago as an empty lot for $10,000.

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.