Developer Mannausa transfers land to start The Jewel construction

BUYER: Main Street J Development Co. (principal: Thomas Mannausa), Bradenton
SELLER: Mannausa Gulfstream Development Co.
PROPERTY: 1301, 1311 and 1319 Main St., Sarasota
PRICE: $10 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.45 million, May 2012; $912,000, July 2012; and $870,800, December 2010
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Williams Parker Harrison Dietz & Getzen, Sarasota

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
Developer Thomas Mannausa has transferred the property at Main Street and Gulfstream Avenue in downtown Sarasota from one of his entities to a second entity he owns for $10 million.

The ownership change was done as part of the gear up for the start of construction on the site. Suffolk Construction Co. has received a notice of construction to start work on The Jewel, an 18-story 105,155-square-foot condominium project.

One of the first high-rise condominium projects to begin since the recession, The Jewel will feature 19 residential units, priced from $1.25 million to $4.1 million, and six commercial units. All of the residential units have been sold and negotiations are ongoing for the retail units.

The project has been planned since December 2010, when Mannausa purchased the first piece of land for the project. Subsequent purchases of adjacent properties housing Sports Page Bar & Grille and Living Walls Furniture & Design cost just less than $3 million in spring 2012, allowing the site to be cleared for the building's construction.

“To do a new construction project such as a condo, there are about 30 different things that have to come together,” Mannausa told the Sarasota Observer. “They've all come together, and now we can start.”

Gary Hoyt of Hoyt Architects in Sarasota designed the project.

The Jewel is scheduled for completion around September 2015.

The purchase entity, Main Street J Development Co., mortgaged the property to Bank of the Ozarks for $18 million.

— additional reporting by David Conway, correspondent