High side of the Obsidian

This is classic Sarasota and classic Longboat Key. It never changes, probably never will.

This is the nature of new development in Florida: People don’t like it when it’s close to their home. It drives them to go on the attack — to defend what they have and not let others have what they want. And the people working to stop the development are seemingly unaware of the irony: They likely live in a development that someone else protested years ago. It’s laughable.

To be sure, for the residents close to the proposed development, we know this is serious stuff. But if you’ve watched this region and Florida grow and grow and grow (and will continue to grow) over the decades, it’s like watching sitcom reruns.

The actors change, but the characters don’t — cranky neighbors opposing the development, packing city hall public hearings, delivering stern and passionate pleadings of doom and outrage, or flooding their elected commissioners with fiery letters, emails and petitions. There is the developer portrayed as a plaid-jacketed, greedy, duplicitous carpetbagger. The developer’s lawyers, whom the opposition views as slick and full of legal blather. And the elected commissioners — stewards of the community, but also politicians who want to be liked, reelected and are prone to giving in when the commission chambers are teeming with protesters.

The story lines are always the same, too: The neighbors say the proposed development is too big or too ugly and is going to ruin the neighborhood and the residents’ lives.

The only thing unpredictable is the ending: who wins, who loses. 

This show is underway simultaneously in the city of Sarasota and on Longboat Key, albeit different episodes. 

In Sarasota, the issue is a proposed 18-story condominium — the Obsidian, slated for a tight patch of North Palm Avenue that would dwarf the historic Bay Plaza condominiums and become downtown’s tallest building.

On Longboat, in classic, only-Longboat fashion, the issue is, get this: a garage — a proposed two-story garage for the St. Regis Hotel & Residences.

In both instances, residents from nearby residential neighborhoods and condominiums have rallied with persistent protests to their city and town commissioners. 

In the Obsidian’s city file, the condo associations from Bay Plaza, Essex House, Gulfstream Towers, Le Chateau, Marina Tower and Sarabande each submitted essentially the same form letter.

In one letter, the final paragraph read: “This proposed building would stick out ‘like a sore thumb’ as the largesse of 14 residents (the number of units in the building). It would be out of bounds with, and disrespectful of, zoning codes and plans. In addition to immediate and lasting impacts on Palm Avenue, if approved, the proposed building would establish precedent for other exceptionally tall, ill-placed skyscrapers, downgrading our beautiful city for all who live in, work in and visit Sarasota.”

A beacon for sarasota

Matt Kihnke (pronounced Kin-KAY), founder and owner of MK Equity and developer of the proposed Obsidian, is befuddled over the intense opposition.

The most obvious is the fact the Obsidian would be 342 feet high, 80 feet higher than the nearby Jewel and Epoch and about 200 feet higher than the Bay Plaza. People are aghast anyone would do such a thing next to the historic Bay Plaza.  

Residents also oppose  losing the quaint (albeit tired) one-story retail stores on one of Sarasota’s most iconic downtown streets. And they take umbrage over Kihnke wanting to build Sarasota’s tallest building on what appears to be a tight spot — 12,366 square feet — directly in front of Bay Plaza. 

“It doesn’t look that small to me,” Kihnke told us. “We did a project in downtown Chicago on an 8,900-square-foot site.”

To the bigger issue, though — the Obsidian’s proposed height, when you ask Kihnke why, he says:

“Why shouldn’t we? Why shouldn’t the Obsidian be a noteworthy piece of art or a beacon in the sky of Sarasota? … Why shouldn’t a few buyers be able to enjoy the city like others do every single day?”

At 55, Kihnke has lived in Sarasota since 2010. A native of Grand Haven, Michigan, what Kihnke calls the Sarasota of Michigan, he has developed residential projects in Chicago, Michigan, the Caribbean and Florida. He became enamored with Sarasota around 2001, when a friend in Chicago asked him to help her dispose of family real estate. 

“When I drove through here, I was very comfortable,” he says. It made him think of Grand Haven. “It was sunny every day I was here, and I was like, ‘This is unbelievable.’”

Kihnke ended up buying his friend’s property and converted it into the CityWalk condominiums, just east of Sarasota Ford. That was the first of what would become a half-dozen other projects in Sarasota and Bradenton.

Most notably in Sarasota, Kihnke developed the Sansara condominium at Pineapple and Ringling and the soon-to-be completed Collection on Second Street across from Selby Library — two architecturally distinct buildings.

“I’m an artist at the core,” Kihnke says. “I love art. I love architecture, so I like to blend the two.”

The idea for the Obsidian evolved from Kihnke partnering with Dr. Mark Kaufman. Kaufman previously owned the retail stores where the Obsidian is to be built, if approved. He originally asked Kihnke to design a four- to five-story rental apartment for the site.

“I said, ‘Dr. Kaufman, in all honesty, I couldn’t do it with that site because I am a highest and best use guy.’ I said, ‘That’s an incredible site, and it deserves so much more than that.’”

Six months later, Kaufman called again. They partnered. Over the next nine months, Kihnke developed his concept. When he showed it to Kaufman, Kihnke remembers Kaufman saying: “Matt, you are out of your mind. You can buy me out and do whatever you want. That’s just too much for me.”

He told Kaufman: “I want to do something special there for the city, because I think it needs it.” Adds Kihnke: “For a city that touts itself on fantastic architecture, it needs more of it.”

And for him, Palm Avenue is “a rock star for the city.” 

“This is a great site,” he says. “And now we have to come up with a building that really amplifies what that site is all about … (P)eople are going to walk by there and go, ‘Wow, that’s an amazing building.’”

Asked what benefits Obsidian would bring to Sarasota other than the distinction of being the tallest building, Kihnke responds:

“That’s one of those questions where I kind of scratch my head. The obvious would be the tax base. Those millions of dollars pay for all the parks, all the waterfront, pay for all of the arts foundations, all of the stuff that makes Sarasota what it is.

“The reason Sarasota is what it is because of all the people who are here. More residences bring more people. More people bring more businesses, more revenue. The restaurants can stay open; the funding of all the art shops and artists. That’s what makes a city. All of the people who live in these buildings are what substantiates Sarasota as one of the great cities.”

Few and savage

That is the irony. That the people who protest new development because they oppose or fear it is out of scale or will attract too many people, too much traffic forget they were those people themselves at one time. They live in places that someone else likely opposed at one time or another.

And they forget that they, like those who are yet to move here, added to the richness of the region.

There is also this undeniable reality: The Obsidian and the proposed St. Regis garage are emblematic of what everyone in this region should realize is unavoidable and unstoppable: More people will be moving here, and more developments are coming.

Kihnke sees it. “Sarasota is on the global map. People are moving here for the obvious reasons, which are unbelievable lifestyle. It’s safe. It’s beautiful. It’s going to continue to become a bigger and better city. It’s an international city. When you walk around and listen to the people from around the world talking, it’s amazing.” 

Rather than be fearful and resentful toward new development and think it is going to ruin your life, think of all the good that comes from population growth and development.

This growth brings to mind a simple, wise and profound observation from the late free-market Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek:  “We can be few and savage, or many and civilized.”

Population growth and development are essential to the flourishing of opportunity and prosperity.