Rookie no more

Entrepreneur Bruce Weiner made his career, and fortune, in luggage and promotional products.

That's why his chief operating officer, Debra Alward, was stunned when Weiner came to her one day in 2011 and declared his intention to build apartments in Sarasota. Not just any apartments, but a high-end community in the Rosemary District — a long neglected neighborhood just north of downtown. Obstacles were stacked: The economy was in the dumps, for one. Also, city officials and numerous neighborhood organizations created what many in the business community considered a climate unfriendly to development.

Then there was this, summed up with a simple question Alward asked Weiner: “What do you know about building apartments?”