Downtown Sarasota building: 1 year, 2 sales, 125% appreciation and a $4.3M sale

A nearly half-acre parcel in downtown Sarasota, once the planned site of a 10-story mixed-use development, has sold for the second time in a year.

The new owner of the 0.44-acre piece of property at 2051 Main Street is an LLC named Center Pointe Property. It paid $4.29 million for the property — 125% more than the previous owner paid in May.

According to a statement from SVN Commercial Advisory Group, which represented the seller, the new owner has no immediate plans for the property but says a 6,050-square-foot building on the site will be demolished.

The property previously changed hands in May, when MainView Sarasota Development, which had planned to build a hotel on the site, paid $1.9 million for it according to county records.

MainView, in 2021, had filed preliminary plans for a 10-story mixed-use development on the site that would have included 36 condominiums and 10,000 square feet of retail. The developer, at the time, was operating as Development & Growth LLC.

SVN’s Mike Migone says in the statement that the quick turnaround came about because interest in the property grew after the city added an overlay district on some downtown properties to increase density with the addition of affordable housing. He says the change made the property appealing to developers and increased the property value “substantially.”

MainView bought the property with the idea of developing “but because there was so much interest in this property since they had acquired it, they changed course and put it on the market instead.”

The 2051 Main St. property is near nine acres that were sold last year to a Georgia developer with plans to for a major renovation that will include a retail component as well as market rate and attainable housing.

That assemblage of property, which is on the southeast corners of U.S. 301 and Fruitville Road, was bought last year by the Brook Farm Group. At the time of the purchase, the developer announced plans to build a development called Park District.

Both are east of the 259,000-square-foot One Main Plaza. The development, which is under construction, includes two 10-story towers with 418 luxury apartments and 55,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor.