Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch real estate developer and noted mentor dies at 89

When New York businessman and developer Frank Cassata retired to Florida in 1999, he had big plans of playing golf.

“It didn’t take very long for him to get bored with golf,” Neal Land & Neighborhoods President John Neal says, citing an off-cited refrain of new retirees. “Frank, as a retired guy, worked almost every day.” 

That led to multiple residential real estate projects across Manatee and Sarasota counties Cassata had a hand in over the next two decades, including several in Lakewood Ranch. Cassata died July 12 in his home in Osprey, south Sarasota County. He was 89.