The historic El Patio Hotel in downtown Venice has been sold for $2.195 million to longtime real estate investor and restaurateur David McRae. The 16-room business at 229 W. Venice Ave. is the only remaining operational hotel in downtown Venice and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1927 …
Category Archives: Regional
Building boom in affordable housing underway in South Florida
There’s a quiet building boom taking place in South Florida, but it’s nothing like the mid-decade condo rush that ended in an epic economic bust. The new towers going up today are not being built on the water for the affluent, but on the chipped sidewalks of gritty neighborhoods for the region’s poorest families. The …
Continue reading “Building boom in affordable housing underway in South Florida”
Homeowners build their ideal Hampton house on Siesta Key
Partners in life for 13 years and now partners in a major house-building project, interior designer Sharon Nizolek and investment banker Guy Della Penna recently finished a beautiful coastal home in Sarasota. It reminds them so much of the shingle-style homes of Newport, Cape Cod, Kennebunkport or the understated mansions in the tony villages of …
Continue reading “Homeowners build their ideal Hampton house on Siesta Key”
Orange foreclosure sales: inflated sales prices
Orange is the only Central Florida county handling foreclosure-auction paperwork in a way that can allow sale prices to be artificially inflated, resulting in higher profits for investors while misleading new buyers and lenders. Officials on Friday were still trying to determine what was in it for the investors, who paid more documentary-stamp taxes on …
Continue reading “Orange foreclosure sales: inflated sales prices”
Canalfront homes at half the ’05 price
Like Bird Key in Sarasota Bay, Country Club Shores on Longboat Key was a planned community. Developed during the 1960s by the Arvida Corp. to provide more homes on the water, it was built on dredged land in five phases. There are no through streets, so the neighborhood is quiet — an obvious plus to …
A Niche in the Wreckage of Florida Real Estate
One recent morning, Shannon Moore raced through a musty pink house — three bedrooms, two baths — that was advertised as having “good bones” and “primed for renovation.” As in many recently foreclosed homes in Florida, the appliances and air-conditioner were missing from this one, either taken by the previous residents or stolen. ”It’s not …
Continue reading “A Niche in the Wreckage of Florida Real Estate”