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Sarasota Harbour, on John Ringling Causeway, has a low profile on the waterfront, but it is a landmark of the state’s development history.
The three-story, concrete-and-stucco buildings of Sarasota Harbour West ushered in an entirely new Florida lifestyle. It was the first apartment complex in Sarasota, and among the first in the state, to bear the label “condominium.”
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Although the condominium, in which owners have title to their apartments and share ownership of common areas and amenities, dates to Roman times, it did not come to America until 1958, in Puerto Rico.
Fifty years ago, the Florida Legislature passed the Condominium Act as Chapter 711 of the Florida Statutes.
Residents at Sarasota Harbour West and East condominiums enjoy a walkway that extends for nearly a half-mile along Sarasota Bay. Sarasota Harbour West was one of the first condominiums built in the state after the Florida condiminium law was enacted in 1963, 50 years ago. Sarasota Harbour East was built in 1965. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 8-27-2013.
In 1963, developer Irving Z. Mann quickly took advantage of the new law. He built the 96-unit Sarasota Harbour West and dedicated the clubhouse, modest by today’s standards, that December.
The condo boom was on. Sarasota Harbour East arrived in 1965 (a separate entity and HOA), then Plymouth Harbour across the street in 1996. In 1968, the Royal St. Andrew, Essex House and other highrises went up on Gulfstream Avenue where stately houses once stood.
Retirees, especially those who went north for the summer, loved the lock-and-leave lifestyle. They gladly gave up painting, maintenance and yard work in return for the monthly condo fee.
In 1963, Florida had about 4 million residents. Condominium ownership brought millions more people to Florida, and their buildings became taller and more luxurious. In comparison, Sarasota Harbour is affordable housing. One can still buy a one-bedroom, one-bath unit for less than $200,000.
Developer I.Z. Mann remarked, after seeing the condo towers going up elsewhere in town, that had he known that would happen, he would have built taller than three stories at Sarasota Harbour.
After all, he did have what many regard to be the best location in town.
“As far as I am concerned, that is the best piece of property in Sarasota, right on the bay. We are actually in the water, surrounded by land on three sides,” said Steve Johandes, who is in the second year of his second stint as president of Sarasota Harbour West’s governing board.
The units overlook Sarasota Bay to the north, which is significant because the winter sun is always behind the complex, to the south, providing bright illumination of the bay and Ken Thompson Park. Residents of Sarasota Harbour East also have views of the Ringling Bridge and downtown Sarasota. West residents have just a five-minute walk to St. Armands Circle.
And then there is the seawall, nearly 2,000 feet long, with a sidewalk that is a favorite with resident walkers and joggers.
“It is a beautiful walk; you have the dolphins and manatees there,” said Johandes, who summers in Holland, Mich.
“We are on this side of the bridge and you just feel secure when you walk to the Circle or the beach,” he said. “You feel like you are in a different town. Once you cross into Sarasota, it is a different ball game.”
The location is so good that, in 2005, at the height of the real estate boom, a proposal was made to buy out all Sarasota Harbour owners, East and West, and replace the eight buildings with luxury highrises.
Sarasota Harbour West condominium on Sarasota's Coon Key. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 8-27-2013.
Owners were offered up to $1 million per unit, but under the law at that time, the vote to redevelop had to be unanimous. About 5 percent of the owners wanted to stay put, according to a Sarasota Harbour insider.
Two years later, Gov. Charlie Crist signed a law that lowered the condo-buyout approval threshold to 80 percent of owners. But by then the real estate market had collapsed.
The land on which Sarasota Harbour is built was created from dredged-up bay bottom to make a channel for boats. Dredging and filling was outlawed around 1970.
“That is why there is sailboat water, because when they dredged it, they made it real deep along the edge so sailboats can come right in to the docks,” Johandes said.
The docks are for use by residents — for free in Sarasota Harbour East and for a $3,000 up-front fee in West.
Johandes has lived in Sarasota Harbour since 1995, and has never seen water over the seawall, although it has come close: “My boat has been higher than the dock.”
Resident maintenance man Jay Henry said the buildings are sound and well-built. New metal roofs were installed a few years ago. Many units have been upgraded, and the plumbing redone. The pool is pristine and was just measured for new Marcite. About $40,000 has been spent on new landscaping in the past two years.
“We just want it to look nice,” Johandes said. “People don’t care to sell; mostly what you are getting now is when owners pass away, their kids wind up with the units, and they cannot afford it. They wind up selling it. You have your maintenance and taxes, and that adds up.”
Fees are $350 a month for a two-bedroom unit, Johandes said. “We have the lowest fees in that area.”
Four units are for sale, ranging from $180,000 to $400,000.
By 1974, when Mann was named Florida Builder of the Year, he had developed 26 condominiums in Sarasota, Daytona Beach, Boca Raton, Lakeland, Winter Haven and Fort Myers. His Longboat Harbour Condominium was chosen among the four outstanding developments in North America in 1970.
“He was ahead of his time. He was so passionate about his product, and the greatest salesman,” Mann’s daughter, Wendy Mann Resnick, once told the Herald-Tribune.
