Quay developer focusing on retail space

Sarasota Quay developer GreenPointe Communities has ambitious plans for its 15-acre, waterfront tract on the edge of the city's downtown, but its roughly $1 billion plan will likely hinge on its retail offerings.

The Jacksonville-based developer, during an Urban Land Institute tour of key Sarasota projects earlier this month, says it plans ground-floor retail “at every opportunity.”

“The retail will be as upscale as any seen in Sarasota,” says Rick Harcrow, GreenPointe's regional president and the company executive spearheading the Quay project.

GreenPointe hopes to begin work on a series of residential and mixed-use towers next year, following roughly $30 million worth of required infrastructure. The company plans to build out the Quay in a grid fashioned into 10 small city blocks.

In all, 695 condominiums are planned, along with a 175-room hotel, apartments and retail space.

“Sarasota is experiencing the kind of economic development success that any city would relish having,” Harcrow says during the ULI tour that highlighted Kolter Group's Vue Sarasota Bay; a 42-acre, city-owned tract that contains the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall; and the city's Rosemary District, where more than 1,000 new rental apartments are being constructed or planned.

“It's definitely not your parents' Sarasota anymore.”