Photo gallery: Snook Inn on Siesta Key
Snook Inn has sold for $10 million.
A six-bedroom house on the northern tip of Siesta Key sold Monday for $10 million, the largest residential sale in Southwest Florida in nearly two years.
"Snook Inn," a 6,400-square-foot bayfront house on two acres with a guest house, boat house, 500 feet of seawall on Sarasota Bay and close proximity to Big Pass, was purchased by an unidentified family from New England.
The 3410 Flamingo Ave. property, sold by "Mickey" and Brooke Callanen, marks the latest and largest sale in a luxury market that has been re-energized in the past year.
Michel Saunders, whose real estate brokerage firm represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction, described the property as a "a private resort that can not be duplicated."
"It has privacy and solitude," Saunders said. "It is like having your own resort, 10 minutes from everything Sarasota has to offer. When you have something you can't duplicate, it is an important property."
Saunders agents Marcia Salkin and Paulene Soublis represented the Callanens, while Realtor Pam Charron negotiated on behalf of the buyer.
Snook Inn is on two acres at the north end of Siesta Key and has its own boat house, 200 feet on Sarasota Bay and 280 feet on Hanson Bayou. Photographed Jan 3, 2008. Herald-Tribune archive.
In addition to being the biggest Sarasota County sale since a $12.5 million deal for a Regent Court residence closed in April 2011, the Snook Inn deal marks one of the five top sales, based on price, in county history.
Of the others, three have been in Lido Shores on Lido Key, and the Regent Court transaction occurred on Longboat Key, according to a search of county records.
But the Snook Inn sale did not happen overnight. The Flamingo Avenue property has been on and off the market for much of the past six years, and it was originally listed for sale at nearly $20 million.
"The seller was prepared to wait until the right time to sell," Saunders said.
The house was built for Callanen, who in 1983 acquired the rights to manufacture and market Guess watches, by the late Michael Collingwood in 1999 and designed by architect Clifford Scholz in a "coastal resort" style.
The house's most recent list price was $12.5 million, records show.
"We worked on finding out where they wanted to be," said Charron, who worked with the buyers for two years after being referred to them by a past client. "Narrowing it down to Sarasota was a process."
But that process, culminating in such a large purchase price -- last year's largest sale, by comparison, of a waterfront home at 1486 Hillview Drive in Sarasota, topped out at $7.5 million -- is likely to ignite other, equally large transactions, real estate agents contend.
"This is a vitamin shot -- others will follow," said Carol Clark, an agent with Premier Sotheby's International Realty.
"It is people of great means saying, 'I believe in Sarasota and I am willing to spend my money here.'"
IN THE $10 MILLION CLUB
Other houses to sell for more than $10 million in Sarasota County:
1219 Westway Drive, Lido Shores, sold for $13.2 million, with the now-vacant lot next door, in 2003.
1067 Westway Drive, Lido Shores, sold for $13 million in 2004.
825 Longboat Club Road, Regent Court, sold for $12.5 million in April 2011.
1127 Westway Drive, Lido Shores, sold for $11 million in 2003.
SOURCE: Sarasota County property records
