Longboat Key home sells for $13.75 million landmark price

A recent home sale marks another high point for property sales on Longboat Key as the highest sale on the Key in 2022 and the second highest in the past 10 years, according to Multiple Listing Service data. 

The property, located at 3303 Gulf of Mexico Drive, was purchased for $13.75 million by Tamara MacCormack, trustee of the MacCormack Florida Property Trust, of Ontario, Canada, in an off-the-market sale. The sellers were Donald and Dawn Meagher.

Since 2010, 24 other homes have sold for more than $10 million in Sarasota and Manatee counties, according to MLS data. Eighteen of those 24 sales have occurred since 2020, including six different homes on Longboat Key. Among Longboat sales, the $13.75 million price for 3303 GMD is second only to a home at 845 Longboat Club Road that sold for $16.5 million in November 2020.

The 3303 Gulf of Mexico Drive property had previously been sold in 2016 for $2.76 million, but the home was extensively remodeled by luxury builder Mason Martin over the past few years.

Roger Pettingell, the Coldwell Banker agent who sold the property to the previous buyer, said he doesn’t know the new owner’s plans for the home but that he would expect them to move in as it is.

“What was there before was a 5,900-square-foot, Gulf-front house that needed to be completely redone,” he said. “I know they did a spectacular renovation. So I can’t imagine that it’s going to be redeveloped. This is a beautiful piece of beachfront property.”

The home is 6,000 square feet and has five bedrooms and six bathrooms, luxury amenities including a heated pool, a spa, an elevator and a three-car garage.

The home has 100 feet of beach footage and more than 100 feet of beach depth, and Pettingell said that the price it commanded is a sign of the times for the Sarasota market.

“It’s a very large sale for us on Longboat Key Gulf-front,” Pettingell said of the $13.75 million purchase price. “I feel like what it says about the market is that we’re just coming up to where we should be. If you looked at a house like that in Naples, it would be over $20 million.”

Mason Martin, the developer behind the property, is also extensively remodeling a home at 5861 Gulf of Mexico Drive. That home is listed at $17.9 million. Reid Murphy, the selling agent attached to the 5861 GMD property, said the buyer for 3303 GMD knew about the 5861 home but wanted something that had been completed.

Pettingell said he did not know much about the particulars of the recent sale of 3303 GMD, but he elaborated on the difference between the Sarasota and Naples markets.

“I have always presumed they’ve been able to get a higher value because they’re just a more mature market,” he said. “They’ve had luxury homes longer than we have. Dating back into the '70s, we were more of vacation homes, smaller condominium Gulf-front properties and a cottage here or there on the beach. But we’ve matured and now we’re a substantial Gulf-front community that is getting the prices we deserve. And I don’t think we’ve seen the limit.”