The Vanguard Lofts site on Fourth Street in Sarasota.
Architect Michael Halflants, Realtor Frank Lambert, architect John Pichette and developer Kevin Bryon
Vanguard Lofts. Staff photo / Harold Bubil.
Architect Michael Halflants with a model of Vanguard Lofts at the groundbreaking on Fourth Street in Sarasota. Staff photo / Harold Bubi; 5-19-2015.
Another ceremonial groundbreaking was held in Sarasota this morning, this one for Vanguard Lofts, on Fourth Street just west of Central Avenue.
There, on a sandy, shelly patch of ground naturally landscaped with sandspurs, Tetra Terra Development, architects Michael Halflants and John Pichette, and officials from Crowley Services Construction tossed dirt into the air with shovels painted gold.
Tetra Terra made a good bit of money flipping houses in San Francisco and is transplanting some of those profits into Sarasota's rebounding Rosemary District. Vanguard Lofts will have six townhouse four of them sold as of today, with distinctive architecture by Halflants + Pichette.
Prices are from the $649,000s to the $849,000s. Developer Kevin Bryon said he might hold the final two units off the market until the building is done in anticipation of higher prices. One unit might even be entered into the 2016 BIA Parade of Homes.
Halflants used soft woods to delineate the units within a modernist building. "People want to be able to recognize from the street that 'this is my unit, this is where I live,' " he said. "It is a nice way to soften it up and make it more accessible."
Bryon is looking for more land, but Halflants said most of the empty land in the Rosemary District is "accounted for." But, he added, the city is growing northward. "This is no longer on the edge of the city; it is becoming the center of the city," the architect said. "The city has only one way to grow, to the north. It is more likely to jump Fruitville Road than U.S. 301."
Realtor Frank Lamber of Premier Sotheby's International Realty noted that 11 projects are in the pipeline within four blocks of Vanguard Lofts. "They will happen within the next 12 months. Some are large, and some are boutique condos. It is a nice mixture," he said.
