High-stakes plan to save downtown Sarasota building will cost $29M

Restoring the Mira Mar will be paid for with proceeds from the sale of 70 condos in twin 18-story towers built behind it.

By Andrew Warfield
| 5:00 a.m. October 1, 2024
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A restored Mira Mar would remove the overhead glass enclosed walkway between the two buildings fronting South Palm Avenue.

Manatee-Sarasota

Historic preservation isn’t for the feint of heart, especially for those paying for it.

Having been denied permission to demolish the Mira Mar building at 49 S. Palm Ave, in downtown Sarasota in 2022, area developer Seaward Development still purchased the century-old building in 2023, for $17.3 million. That was a key step in what now has been about an 18-month effort to determine how it could save the Mira Mar and still redevelop the property.

That endeavor led to partnering with East Coast architects Rick Gonzalez and Igor Reyes to devise a plan to restore the Mira Mar to its 1923 origins and pay the bill by building two 18-story residential towers behind it. Gonzalez, of West Palm Beach, has 40 years of expertise in historic building restoration while Reyes, of Coral Gables, specializes in designing projects that help monetize such efforts.

The cost to restore the Mira Mar is estimated at $29 million. The money to cover that will come from a portion of the sale of 70 condominiums to be built between the rear of the historic building and Mira Mar Court. It’s a proposal for a mixed-use development that will require a rezoning from Downtown Bayfront to Downtown Core, effectively returning the site to its pre-2005 zoning, preceded by a Comprehensive Plan change of the site’s future land use category.

The Mira Mar property is currently zoned Downtown Core. Seaward Development is seeking to have it rezoned Downtown Bayfront.

That would permit Seaward to build the variable-height towers rather than the 10 stories the current zoning allows, but with 1 million fewer cubic feet than is currently permitted there by right.

A Sept. 17 community workshop hosted by Seaward Development introduced the concept to the public in preparation for a forthcoming rezoning application for the site. Rather than an 18-story flat wall, the design of the towers peaks at 18 stories in the center, terracing down to 17 then 15 stories toward the edges.

Seaward Development owner Patrick DiPinto told the community workshop audience the demolition denial by the city’s Historic Preservation Board was the start of an education in preservation.

In red is what can be built under current zoning on the Mira Mar property. The blue represents the Seaward Development proposal.

“Looking back, I think we made a mistake,” DiPinto said of Seaward’s original plan. “We probably moved a little too quick. We made some quick decisions, and after the education that we received over the last year and a half, I think at this point that's a good thing.”

Mira Mar presents the rare preservation challenge. It’s long, 400-foot span along Palm Avenue was built of wood on a non-compressed beach. What opened as an apartment building after two months of construction floats on the ground, neither stabilized on concrete piers nor strapped from the roof to the ground. A significant part of the restoration cost lies in that work alone.

A rendering of the residential towers behind a restored Mira Mar.

The building has shown signs of structural weakness. Although maintained by Seaward, which has office space in Mira Mar, portions of the building are not safely inaccessible. Additions and modifications over the decades are planned to be removed and the original appearance restored. The second-floor, glass-enclosed pedestrian connector will be removed and the open vista restored toward a center courtyard between the residential towers.

“The building has had significant changes, and we're like surgeons,” Gonzalez said. “First, we're detectives. We come in, we measure everything, we look at the (historical) photographs and then we're going to work like surgeons. We're going to remove portions that are not appropriate, that are not original, and then we're going to reconstruct it to match the historic 1923 look. That's what the $29 million budget gives us, and that's what we're going to do as we move forward with the project.”

The financial engine

None of that happens without the revenue generated by the new residential construction and the comparatively minimal design of separate, tiered condominium towers. Otherwise, without the rezoning, the next best option to foot the bill is a 10-story, lot line to lot line concrete and glass rectangle with 270 rental apartments.

Historic restoration architect Rick Gonzalez told attendees at the community workshop that preserving the corners, not just the front facade, is crucial to accuate preservation. This part of Mira Mar is at the corner of South Palm Avenue and McAnsh Square.

The residential buildings plan includes:

Two 18-story towers with setbacks far greater than zoning requires and to maximize light and air for neighboring properties and preservation of view corridors.
Volume of proposed buildings is less than single zero-lot line, 10-story building with 1 million fewer cubic feet than currently zoned.
Complementary architecture to the Mira Mar building.
Central access at Palm Avenue and large central courtyard providing quasi-public open space.
Additional commercial space on the rear of the property along Mira Mar Court, filling a current gap in the pedestrian experience.
No additional density.

The Mira Mar redevelopment proposal would add street-level commercial space along Mira Mar Court.

“The towers are what is going to help pay for the $29 million it's going to take to restore this project,” Gonzalez said. “If you can't get the towers built, then there's not an economic engine to save the structures. The structures are in very, very, very bad shape. The Miramar is under threat.”

That threat will not end soon. Seaward now must seek a Comprehensive Plan amendment to change the future land use classification of the property, followed by a rezoning. A Comprehensive Plan amendment must be approved by a supermajority of the City Commission and endorsed by the state before rezoning can occur.

Mira Mar current conditions

The Mira Mar building has multiple issues, including:

Multiple tenant spaces cannot be occupied because of required structural steel shoring posts to support building from further settlement.
Existing structure is comprised of wood joist roof and floor systems that are supported by load-bearing, wood-framed walls. Deteriorated wood from water and insect damage has been identified throughout structure.
No hurricane straps identified on wood rafters.
Water intrusion issues persist from the glass roof domes added in the 1980s.
Existing exterior wall studs must be exposed and evaluated to determine deterioration for potential replacement. A significant amount of the exterior wall framing will need to be replaced.
No foundations exist. Retrofitting is proposed using micropile underpinning.
Foundation improvements are required at north side of the building where signs of settlement are evident.
The building has crack monitors throughout that are required to be monitored monthly by a structural engineer.

This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.

author

Andrew Warfield

Andrew Warfield is the Sarasota Observer city reporter. He is a four-decade veteran of print media. A Florida native, he has spent most of his career in the Carolinas as a writer and editor, nearly a decade as co-founder and editor of a community newspaper in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.