St. Pete firm starts work on 96-unit affordable housing project in Sarasota

By the end of 2025, 96 new affordable and attainable apartments, with the look and feel of a market-rate development, will be available when New Trail Plaza opens for occupancy.

New Trail Plaza is a joint project of St. Petersburg-based Blue Sky Communities and Community Assisted & Supported Living (CASL) of Sarasota. The development will be built on 3.5 of 6.2 acres acquired from Sarasota County along North Tamiami Trail between 46th and 47th streets. For now, Blue Sky Communities has no plans for the remaining 2.7 acres east of the development.

New Trail Plaza will be a four-story, 90-unit apartment building plus a three-story building with six more units and just more than 3,000 square feet CASL will preserve for community use such as after-school care and other youth education programming for its residents.

The rental apartments will be priced in three tiers: 30% or below, 60% or below and 80% or below area median income (AMI). Affordability is defined as no more than 30% of the household’s income to be spent on housing, including utilities. 

“About 20% of our apartments will be occupied by people whose income is Social Security, V.A. disability, etc.,” Blue Sky Communities President Shawn Wilson says. “The other 80% of the adults here will be in the workforce and contributing and paying taxes in this community. They deserve the best, and that's what they're going to get here. 

“We're going to contribute not only to providing affordable housing but to the redevelopment of the North Trail because we are complying with all of the North Trail Overlay District requirements.”

Or exceeding them. The overlay district requires a minimum of 57 parking spaces. New Trail Plaza will have 104 spaces in a parking lot surrounding a natural area beneath two massive live oaks.

Unit types and rent per AMI

The goal for the rental tiers is to attract workers in health care, public safety, food service and hospitality and others who work in the city but cannot afford to live here, similar to affordable housing developments the company has built in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

“Most of the people we're serving are going to be workers who are in the community, and they're making about $15 or $20 an hour,” Wilson says. “Sometimes there are two incomes in a household, sometimes there's one, sometimes there's one with child support, sometimes there's just a household on fixed income. We do serve quite a few households that are no longer in the workforce.”

CASL CEO Scott Eller says New Trail Plaza will contribute to the renaissance of the North Trail as one of multiple new developments planned for the northern end of Tamiami Trail. Bookended by the airport and two colleges to the north and downtown to the south — with Ringling College of Art and Design in between — the diverse demographics of the project will contribute to the fabric of the area while benefitting the new residents.

“This brings the reality of what we're facing today,” Eller says. “Sixteen thousand-plus households in Sarasota County are spending 50% or more on their rent. Anytime you're over 30% you're running the risk of losing your home. This also translates to what we're seeing with a shortage in law enforcement, our hospitals, our schools and our service industry professionals who are all suffering because of this.”

Income limits to qualify

To help pay for the project, Sarasota County has pledged $4.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds and together Blue Sky and CASL secured $30 million from the Florida Housing Finance Corp., a division of the state’s Department of Community Affairs.

The Sarasota City Commission also unanimously approved $1 million for the development, including $400,000 in federal HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds and $600,000 in State Housing initiatives Partnerships funds.

“This is a great example of a public-private partnership to bring about what we want in our community, which is more affordable housing,” says Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert. “We need people to work in our hospitals, our schools, our restaurants, first responders, police officers — so many people who are vital to our community, but they can't afford to live here.”

This story originally appeared in the the Sarasota Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer.