SARASOTA, FLORIDA, May 14, 2019 – The North Port City Commission has started deliberations on a plan to redevelop the former Sabal Trace golf course into a mixed-use community called “The Springs.” This is a project sure to impact several existing neighborhoods nearby and their stock of Sarasota homes for sale, particularly those around the closed links.
The Sabal Trace course is located north of the Tamiami Trail and just south of the Heron Creek golf community across Appomattox Drive. Clusters of single family homes and neighborhoods of villas earlier developed under the Sabal Trace banner surround the golf links set for redevelopment.
The former Sabal Trace golf course, which opened in the early 1970s, measures 207-plus acres. It stopped operations after some 45 years following the property’s foreclosure in 2015. It was sold for $1.5 million in a summer 2017 auction. The winning bidder was GNP Development Partners of Tampa whose principal, Mark Gerenger, formed Sabal Trace Partners LLC for the links’ redevelopment.
The overgrowth of vegetation on the old golf course, an eyesore for nearby Sabal Trace homes for sale, has been removed in preparation for the redevelopment project. Gerenger has tapped the community development and planning services firm Kimley Horn. Incidentally, this national company was also involved in the multi-million dollar upgrades of the Siesta Key Beach Park in 2013‒2016.
The Sabal Trace redevelopment plan now rolling through the North Port City Commission approval processes presents The Springs as primarily a residential community with a maximum of 500 dwellings. These residences shall consist of a mix of single family homes and villa-type houses. The development plan presented shows most lots of these housing units platted around several water features within the property.
In addition, a mixed-use area is proposed at the southern side of the former golf course at Greenwood Avenue just north of the Tamiami Trail. The uses eyed for this area include residential units for senior living or multifamily dwellings not exceeding 300 units. Also envisioned here are neighborhood-type retail shops, professional offices, and medical services.
A rezoning of the Sabal Trace golf course is necessary before these plans are implemented.
Market activity in the existing residences around the former golf links have been notably brisk during the first months of 2019. Over 15 pre-owned residences, consisting of single family homes and villas, have been sold at the Sabal Trace neighborhoods since the start of the year. New listings in these subdivisions are likewise cropping up recently in the MLS of Sarasota homes for sale.
This vibrant mood is prevalent nowadays in the North Port real estate market. The looming redevelopment of the Sabal Trace golf course is but one of the factors driving excitement in the local property sector.
Home construction activity has picked up significantly at the West Villages featuring seven communities off both flanks of the Tamiami Trail west of Sabal Trace. The West Villages area is now reputed as amongst the fastest growing master developments in the U.S. One factor driving this growth is the recently opened CoolToday Park, which is the new home of the iconic ball club, Atlanta Braves.
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>>