- December 3, 2024
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Property Markets Group President and CEO Kevin Maloney facetiously called it “approved by exhaustion,” referring to the brief Planning Board public hearing with virtually no discussion that culminated in the unanimous approval of One Park West.
The confirmation marked the end of a two-year odyssey that began as a plan by Miami-based PMG to build One Park on Blocks 1 and 9 in The Quay, crossing over Quay Commons with a 20-plus-foot high activated breezeway. The massing of the building was successfully opposed in court by residents of The Ritz-Carlton Residences, collectively known as Block 6, on the opposite corner of The Quay.
Block 6 challenged the project based on a transfer of air rights above Quay Commons by master developer GreenePointe Developers to PMG, objecting to the massing of the building and the breezeway they feared would create a wind tunnel and infringe on the ease and enjoyment of common property.
That prompted PMG and Sarasota-based partner MoneyShow to separate the project into two parts —One Park, which is currently under development on Block 1, and One Park West, which won Planning Board approval on Oct. 23. Like all other condo projects in The Quay, both One Park buildings will be 18 stories tall.
In addition to the residences, One Park West will include 4,406 square feet of street-level commercial space.
The go-ahead for One Park West wraps up the city’s regulatory process for development of the 14-acre site, which was divided into 10 “blocks.” Completed in the Quay are Cordelia apartments on Blocks 2 and 3, Bayso condominiums on Blocks 4 and 5, and The Ritz-Carlton Residences on Block 6. Under construction is Ritz-Carlton Residences II on Blocks 7 and 8, joining One Park on Block 1. Nearing completion is Ocean Prime restaurant on Block 10.
The centerpiece of The Quay is the historic Belle Haven building, which was preserved and is owned by GreenPointe.
Maloney said the protracted legal battle with Block 6 worked to PMG’s advantage as it allowed the opportunity for pricing adjustments to better offset escalating construction costs, although he said he remains confused as to what was gained by the opposition. Viewed from the angle of Block 6, he said, the two One Park towers will still appear as one building.
“I could never quite figure it out. Their view corridor only changed by less than 1%, and that was only in the very last line of the apartments, so nothing changed on the view corridor,” Maloney said. “We were fortunate enough to able to reset our pricing, which was important because during this two-year battle costs escalated and our margins had thinned out. It worked out very well for us because when we went to redesign One Park, we rescinded everybody.
“There were a lot of people still interested, and we brought pricing up by 30%, so we have the same margins we anticipated initially four years ago. All in all, I'm not dissatisfied.”
The original One Park Plan included 123 condominiums. By separating the buildings, PMG now plans a total of 155 units, 86 in One Park and 69 in One Park West.
The additional density also gave PMG an opportunity to reduce pricing in One Park West, where it is planning smaller units at —for The Quay standards — entry-level pricing at just more than $1 million to about $3 million. Maloney said price per square foot in One Park West will be approximately $1,200 compared to about $1,500 per square foot in One Park.
Maloney said PMG has experience in building lower-priced residential units coexisting with those costing many millions more.
“For people who want to live in The Quay because it's among more affluent buildings, this would be a great price point for them,” Maloney said. “We’ve had really good success Miami. A lot of people in Miami built very large units priced at $5 million and up and we built a whole bunch starting at $400,000 and we’ve had great, great success.”
That’s beneficial, Maloney said, because fluctuating plans for the adjacent Hyatt Regency property, which was acquired by Kolter Urban — developer of the Ritz-Carlton Residences in The Quay — will have an uncertain impact on view corridors for One Park West. Maloney said PMG is in no hurry to begin building One Park West for that very reason.
“We have contracts at One Park West and some reservations. It will lag behind One Park by probably six months, but I just don't want to sell something to people and represent a view corridor that they may not have,” Maloney said. “It doesn't always have to be about how much money you can make. I'd like to build a building that works for us and for our neighbors.”
When construction does begin, the general contractor will be Juneau Construction of Tampa, which is also building One Park.
Maloney said PMG is only getting started in Sarasota. The company is considering other development sites here, both coastal and inland, and may bring as many as two projects for development review in 2025.
“We like the west coast. That's why we're in St. Pete and that's why we're in Tampa,” Maloney said. “We want to do more there, and Sarasota is right smack in the middle of our radar.”
