Sarasota Yacht Club presents expansion plans to the city

A three-story, free-standing structure is proposed to meet growing membership demands.


Sarasota Yacht Club plans to build a three-story addition as part of its expansion plans.
Sarasota Yacht Club plans to build a three-story addition as part of its expansion plans.
Courtesy image
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Local architect Mark Sultana recalls when he received the phone call that he won the contract to design the current facilities for Sarasota Yacht Club just east of St. Armands off John Ringing Causeway. 

It came the day his daughter was born.

“My daughter is 16 now, so I’ve been working on this project for that long,” said Sultana, founder of DSDG Architects, to the city’s Development Review Committee on July 3.

“The club has become very popular. They have about a 75-person waitlist currently to get a membership, so they engaged me to look at future development and future expansion for the project,” Sultana said. “Some of the areas that need attention are the fitness center that's too small and the office space for employees is too small.”

An aerial rendering of the proposed expansion of Sarasota Yacht Club.
Courtesy image

To address those needs and to eliminate the waiting list, Sultana and the club settled on a new free-standing structure built above current surface parking, plus more parking spaces in order to expand membership. The private club is zoned Office Regional District and requires a minor conditional use and site plan approval by the Planning Board.

Proposed changes to the site plan originally submitted in 2008 include:

  • Addition of 4,691 square feet to the existing 22,068-square-foot second floor clubhouse to allow for 155 seats to be added to the existing 833 seats.
  • Addition of 1,003 square feet to the existing 26,920-square-foot outside dining deck area to allow the club to add 66 seats to the existing 179 seats.
  • New 8,000-square-foot, three-story multi-use building to include club offices, a classroom and fitness space.  A 2,540-square-foot roof deck that will have 169 outdoor dining seats.
  • Addition of 26 parking spaces for a total of 197 spaces.

No change to the refuse and recycling requirements are expected as a result of this change other than perhaps an additional day for collection.

With multiple comments made by staff and a traffic impact study required, the project requires a resubmittal to the DRC. Once it meets all code requirements, it will be placed on the Planning Board agenda.


777 S. Palm Ave.

Located directly across U.S. 41 from the new parking structure at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, developer Odin Endeavors is seeking to redevelop an aging two-story commercial building standing on just more than half an acre into a five-story condominium building that will include attainable housing.

A new multiuse building is planned to replace this commercial structure at 777 South Palm Avenue.
Photo by Andrew Warfield

Representing the developer, land planning consultant Kimley-Horn is anticipating administrative approval of the project as there are no requested changes to the Downtown Edge zoning requirements. 

As a pre-application hearing before the DRC, details are few and the plan remains in flux. The preapplication documents referenced 27 condominiums with two attainable housing units, but Patrick Seidensticker of law firm Icard Merrill, representing the applicant, suggested that could change by the time a plan is submitted.

“The proposed development today says 27 units,” he said. “Subsequent to this, it has been determined those units may increase to 33 or so with required attainable housing. And there also may be an addition of some commercial retail space on the site as well.”

The increase in residential units will require at least thee affordable and attainable units per the city's density bonus policy. They must be evenly distributed between price points that are defined as affordable to 80% or below, 81-100%  and 101-120% of area median income.

The proposed development includes a pedestrian amenity area, a ground-floor lobby with a mezzanine and two levels of parking. A rooftop amenity area featuring a pool and fitness area are also proposed. The public realm will be improved with street trees and wide sidewalks along South Palm Avenue and Bayfront Drive.


Bayside North

With site work already underway on the Bayside apartment development between Florida and Cocoanut avenues bordered by 10th Street and May Lane in the Rosemary District, its developer, Longboat Group, presented plans for a second phase to be named Bayside North.

The site is just shy of an acre and borders the 3.5-acre Bayside property to the north to 10th Street. Although developed separately, Bayside North will add 96 apartments to the 254 units planned for Bayside. At seven stories, Bayside North will be two stories taller than Bayside, as permitted by code. Fifteen units in Bayside North will be priced as attainable and affordable.

The parcel is currently used as staging area for Bayside construction.

A rendering of Bayside apartments. Bayside North is proposed to be built next to the under construction project at the corner of Florida Avenue and 10th Street.
Courtesy image

Development consultant Joel Freedman told the DRC a Planning Board adjustment will be required for the project because of design conflicts between the city’s Engineering Design Criteria Manual (EDCM) and the Rosemary Residential Overlay District on matters such as easements and setbacks.

“It creates an interesting issue because of maximum setbacks in Downtown Edge, so we're obviously having to get an adjustment from the Planning Board,” Freedman said. “This is another case where we have the Rosemary Overlay District wanting one thing and the EDCM wanting another, so my expectation is we'll be asking for a technical deviation to do what the Rosemary Overlay District wants us to do.”

The RROD requires at least three additional development standards incorporated into the project's design, Bayside North meeting four of them. Urban open space will occupy at least 10% of the site, which qualifies as two standards. In addition, the project will be mixed-use as required and at least 50% of the dwelling units above the ground floor and facing streets will have balconies.

In addition to the 96 apartments, Bayside North proposes a 2,995-square-foot commercial space on the ground floor that is currently planned for a casual restaurant of up to 100 seats that may serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

author

Andrew Warfield

Andrew Warfield is the Sarasota Observer city reporter. He is a four-decade veteran of print media. A Florida native, he has spent most of his career in the Carolinas as a writer and editor, nearly a decade as co-founder and editor of a community newspaper in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

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