David Weekley begins Sarasota townhome, villa project

Homebuilder David Weekley Homes has kicked off construction of its roughly $65 million Payne Park Village project in Sarasota, which will bring 135 townhomes, villas and single-family homes to the city.

While it is the largest ground-up project Houston-based David Weekley has undertaken in Southwest Florida — the company paid $8.3 million for the eight-acre site — the development also is notable for how long it has taken to get underway.

More than a decade ago, developer Ron Burks planned to raze a former Scotty’s home improvement store and other warehouses on the property for a series of seven-story condominiums with 460 units, but neighboring residents would have none of it.

A series of community protests over density and one gut-punching economic recession later and the property became one of the best-known casualties of last decade’s crash.

David Weekley, the nation’s largest privately held homebuilder, hopes to have the initial units its nine-building project completed later this year. Pre-sales are slated to begin in the spring.

“We’re excited to show what we’re all about in Sarasota and be part of all the redevelopment that’s occurring here,” says Jimmy Oriol, the company’s division president for the Sarasota area.

The residences will range from 1,100 square feet to 2,400 square feet and be priced from $300,000 to more than $600,000.

Michael Saunders & Co. commercial agents Lee DeLieto Sr. and Lee DeLieto Jr. brokered the transaction between a Burks-controlled entity and David Weekley.

Payne Park Village also is adjacent to the 10-acre tract where the Richman Group is developing 22 apartments on a site that for decades had been the Ringling Shopping Center.

“We feel this site is just positioned so well, given everything that is happening in this community,” Oriol says.