Fifty-five may be the new 40, or so say many aging Americans, but for a yacht club, 55 is 55, plain and simple.
A good age for a facelift.
Bird Key, one of Sarasota's most prestigious neighborhoods, was developed by Arvida Corp., which bought the small island as part of its $13.5 million purchase of 2,200 acres from John Ringling North in 1959. Arvida dreged and filled the 12-acre island to 200 acres, creating an island of wealth that is a property tax revenue machine for local governments. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 8-21-2015.
Built in 1960, Bird Key Yacht Club, centerpiece of one of Sarasota’s most desirable neighborhoods, is undergoing refurbishment as its leadership strives to add 70 members to its current roll of 330. The club’s new general manager, Robert Brown, said about $2.5 million is being spent on remaking seawalls and replacing piers. The carpets have been cleaned and the bar revarnished. The building and deck have been repainted, and the kitchen rewired with better lighting for the staff, led by four certified chefs.
“Our aim is to present our best face,” said Brown, formerly of Venetian Golf and River Club in Venice. He noted that in 2011, the clubhouse’s façade was remodeled with a new porte cochere and other design elements that give it a neotraditional appearance.
Brown also would like to expand the outdoor dining area, increasing its capacity from about 50 to 150, to take advantage of “the best view in Sarasota” — eastward to the downtown skyline. “That would increase revenues and people wanting to be here,” he said. “Outdoor dining is a popular thing.
“That is two years down the road. But if we increase our membership to 400 in the next year, we will have the money to do that, no problem.”
The Bird Key Yacht Club is being refurbished in an effort to increase the membership from 330 to about 400. The club was built in 1960, after Arvida Corp. bought the Ringling Estate holdings on the barrier islands for $13.5 million in 1959. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 8-21-2015.
Those new members will pay an initiation fee of $7,500 and an annual dues bill of $4,500, along with dining-room minimums of $1,200 for households and $600 for individuals.
The club has 39 employees, but it is member-driven, which means volunteers organize much of the activity through committees for marketing, membership, art displays and social events, among other functions.
“We are a very friendly club,” said 15-year resident Lynne Koy, one of those volunteers. “Because we are member-driven, we have the opportunity for people to be engaged. Once you are engaged on a committee with other members, they become your friends.”
Improvements to the clubhouse and marina are expected to add additional sizzle to what has been one of Sarasota’s most prestigious real estate submarkets since Arvida Corp. bought the island in 1959. That’s when the then-new development company, named after aluminum king Arthur Vining Davis, bought the key from the John Ringling estate as part of a $13.5 million, 2,200-acre deal.
Improvements to the club will be “an important factor” in the Bird Key real estate market, said Koy, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Previews and one of 50 real estate agents who live on Bird Key. Ten homes are currently under contract; Koy said maybe half of those buyers could join the club.
“We feel it is going to be a huge benefit,” she said of the club’s aesthetic makeover.
Membership in the yacht club is open to all, and not just Bird Key residents. About 100 of the 330 members live on the key, and almost all those resident real estate agents are members, Koy said.
“It is a highly competitive market,” she added. “Tell me about it.”
Koy does all right. Of the nine houses now active on the market, she has five of them in her portfolio of listings. And she has a sale pending on a house on North Warbler Drive — all the streets are named after birds — that is listed just shy of $3 million. She has sold six Bird Key properties this year.
Year to date, 32 Bird Key homes have sold, and 70 percent have been all-cash deals. Prices have ranged from $600,000 for a 1962 house on a “garden” (non-waterfront) lot to $4.55 million for a three-year-old bayfront house with 5,581 square feet and views of Big Pass. The cheapest canal-front houses, originals from the 1960s, go for a bit more than $1 million, and bayfront starts at $1.3 million for original stock.
Meadow Lark and Robin drives, facing downtown directly, have the choice lots, which go for $2.8 to $3 million if the houses are teardowns. Not too many of those left. The Bird Key record sale is $7.5 million for “Isle of View,” which faces the skyline at the end of Seagull Lane, near the John Ringling Bridge.
“People are paying a premium for non-waterfront properties so they can be on Bird Key if they don’t want to spend the extra money for waterfront,” Koy said. “So for the first time, we are seeing non-waterfront pushing up the value of waterfront. For a long time, a canal-front home was $1 million to $1.2 with an original house. Now they are a million-four.”
The teardown trend may not have been invented on Bird Key, but it has been perfected there over the past 25 years. “Two thirds of the 510 properties are waterfront, another third are garden,” Koy said. “Of the 510, less than 50 percent are original.” Contractors are building seven new houses. Where Mediterranean Revival architecture once dominated the new-construction market, West Indies and even modernist houses are popular right now.
“Demand is huge. We can’t satisfy it,” Koy said.
“The best thing about living in Bird Key is the sense of community and the feeling that neighbors look out for neighbors,” she added. “We are close to downtown, and we can walk and take advantage of the theaters and restaurants. And the club is a benefit.”
Some residents feared the new Ringling Bridge would harm property values when it was built in 2004. But it has turned out to be a recreational amenity, said Koy, who, in cooler weather, will walk across it with her friends to shop at the downtown farmer’s market on Saturday mornings.
That is, if she doesn’t have plans at the yacht club.
