SARASOTA, FLORIDA, April 13th, 2017 – Picks on homes for sale are quite few in South Oak and Plantation Bay Estates, neighboring communities of Feld Entertainment Studios at the border of Palmetto with Ellenton in north Manatee. This dearth of sales listing, however, could soon be over as the long-delayed Sanctuary Cove housing project in this area is girding to start home construction.
This project off U.S. 301 and adjacent west of Feld Entertainment has been in the drawing boards since 2005. Its site, which borders the Manatee River towards south, consists of 211 acres envisioned for between 950 and 1,100 residential units.
Planned as a luxury waterfront community, Sanctuary Cove was originally approved for 252 single-family home sites, a 12-story riverfront condominium, and four-story townhouses. Its blueprint likewise includes 200,000 square feet of commercial space along U.S. 301 (10th Street East).
Site work for this project began in 2007, and much of the infrastructure has been installed years ago. The development, however, was halted because of financial difficulties during the Great Recession, and a new owner, Winter Park-based Avanti Properties Group, bought it in 2009.
Since then, Avanti has been getting yearly extension approvals for Sanctuary Cove, waiting for the right economic conditions for the project to proceed, which appear to be ripe now. Already, the developer has pulled the first two permits which signaled that the project is again moving forward.
According to the project’s development manager, Bjorn Svenson, they have also started some road improvements on the property along U.S. 301. Other reported priorities for this project to proceed include further infrastructure improvements and inspection of utilities put in place years earlier. If it is ensured that utilities, such as water lines and sewer lines are clear, Svenson is hopeful that home building in Sanctuary Cove could start this summer.
A revival of this development indeed appears at an opportune time, as inventory of residential properties in Manatee, including Bradenton homes for sale, remains in sellers’ territory at about four months’ supply. Demand for homes in the county looks upbeat as well, with price appreciation sustained for most of 2016 and for the first two months of this year.
The builds at Sanctuary Cove once finally launched on the market could also lure potential buyers in nearby communities with an eye for move-up homes. Significantly, too, resale homes are rarely available around this property and a new sales listing could sell quickly.
At Plantation Bay, for instance, a 2,348-square-foot-home with four bedrooms and sales-listed at close to the $300s was sold in January after just 15 days on the market. The only listing in this community as of this Mach is a five-bedroom riverfront residence with a floor area of 3,324 square feet and an asking price of $1.17 million.
Recent sales are as brisk at the nearby South Oak community where homes are typically sales- listed in the upper $100s and the $200s for residences with floor plans of between 1,300 and 2,100 square feet. Deals on such properties could be closed in just two weeks, indicator of a perky market mood that bodes well for the revived development of the Sanctuary Cove.
SARASOTA, FLORIDA, October 7, 2019 – Property values of communities in the Sarasota-Manatee region now face lesser threat from neighborhood eyesores brought about by abandoned, foreclosed homes. Known in the real estate trade as zombie foreclosures, these properties have shrunk significantly in the region. According to an August report of ATTOM Data Solutions, abandoned […] more>>