Palma Sola Bay Club is a neighborhood in the making — literally. Currently, the luxury condo development in Bradenton sports only a two-story clubhouse, which doubles as the sales office, and a single, nearly finished “model” building.
Ultimately, the 31-acre development off 75th Street West, a half-mile north of Cortez Road in Bradenton, will have 23 three-story condo buildings in Key West style, constructed of cement block with stucco exterior, porches and shiny metal roofs.
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Each condo unit will have two designated parking spaces in the garage on the ground floor beneath their building. An elevator and internal and external stairs will provide access to the apartments above. The condos will all have high-quality interiors, including custom-designed, granite counters, under-counter-mounted sinks, recessed lighting, tile floors and hand-textured ceilings.
The buildings will be attractively arranged around Lake Lucy and Lake Charlotte, two man-made ponds named after the granddaughters of the current developer. They’ve already been stocked with fish, and in the mornings you can see ospreys diving for breakfast. Extensive wetlands in the gated part of the community and mangroves along the water complete the environment-friendly atmosphere.
But what gives the development its special cache are its spectacular vistas of Palma Sola Bay. Virtually all of the units on the second and third floors will have a direct view of the water.
Palma Sola Buy Club was started in 2008. The original developer, Evelyn Treworgy, put in all of the infrastructure — streets, water, sewer, electrical access — but fell victim to the recession. She paid off the contractors, returned the deposits to prospective buyers and put the project on hold, expecting to be back in business after two years.
But the land lay fallow until July 2013, when she sold it to Edward Rymer, a local real estate developer. His other projects have included the Harbor View Condos in Sarasota, the Holiday Cove RV Resort on Cortez Road and a number of shopping malls in Minnesota.
Since then, everyone has been hard at work getting building No. 12 and the clubhouse ready to show. The design is by architect Brent Parker of the Parker Walter Group, a Sarasota-based firm that has done a number of high-end projects in the area, including The Phoenix on Golden Gate Point.
“Building 11 will start within two weeks, and buildings 13 and 17 will get going, too,” said Brian Maher, a sales associate for Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, which is the exclusive listing agent for Palma Sola Bay Club.
Maher likes Palma Sola Bay Club so much he has put his house in Sarasota on the market and plans to move in.
“All our kids are grown, so we’re downsizing,” he said. “I think it’s one of the best locations you can find.”
Each building will have three condos per floor — one two-bedroom unit and two three-bedroom, two-and-half-bathroom units, ranging in size from 1,657 to 1,857 square feet. Prices start at $282,000 and go as high as $453,000, depending on proximity to the bay and location in the building. The top floors command the highest prices, and all three units of the “model” building have been sold already.
Monthly fees of $386 a month cover insurance on the exterior of the buildings, all of the grounds, roads and building maintenance, as well as basic cable.
The two-story clubhouse offers a heated swimming pool, fitness center, full kitchen facilities on both floors, an upstairs billiards room with computer stations and a separate game and meeting room.
The neighborhood will be pet friendly, with a dog park. There are plans for a Jack Nicklaus-designed putting green. Permits are being drawn for a 900-square-foot dock to extend into Palma Sola Bay between the mangroves, where residents can fish, sun themselves and launch kayaks and canoes.
“We’ve had a lot of interest from snowbirds, Bradenton residents looking to downsize and people who want new construction and high quality,” Maher said. “We think we’re a good alternative to Lakewood Ranch.”
He said he expects the neighborhood to be a mix of residents, including families with children at IMG Academy.
“Our first purchasers were a real estate professional, a snowbird and two doctors in their 30s,” he said.
It’s hard to beat the location and amenities. Cortez Road has shopping, restaurants and banks. Schools and Blake Medical Center and IMG Academy are all nearby. There are four golf courses within two miles.
“The location is absolutely fabulous,” Maher said. “You have Cortez Village and Anna Maria Island only three miles away. It’s only nine miles to the Sarasota airport and 45 minutes to the Tampa airport.”
Maher expects interest to continue growing apace.
“They tell me they can build as fast as I can sell,” he said, “but I think it will take two to two and half years.”
