An Unusual Property…

April 27th, 2011

Looking for a Sarasota home with character?

Here’s a West of Trail two-bedroom home with a three-room guest-house/studio .

  • • Quarter-acre lot on a quiet street with several restored Spanish Mediterranean homes.
  • • Main house has 2 bedrooms, an updated bathroom, and kitchen with a Garland stove.
  • • The 3-room guest-house has a bath with shower.
  • • Original pine floors. Bermuda shutters. French doors and recently installed windows bring in lots of light.
  • • Lot is shaded by mature oaks, bamboo, and other tropical plantings.
  • • Located within a block of Sarasota Memorial Hospital and Southside Village.
Living room & dining room

This vintage property is captivating, and it needs work.

The new owner should be:

A) Someone who loves 1920’s homes and has deep pockets.
—OR
B) Someone who respects 1920’s architecture and knows the period materials (stucco, plaster, vintage roof tiles) and is capable of doing many of the needed repairs himself.

Right up front, anyone interested should know that:

  • • The owner wishes to sell, not rent.
  • • This is NOT a distress sale, foreclosure, or short-sale.
  • • The property is not listed in MLS.
  • • No owner financing is available.

Price: $459,000. Shown only by appointment.

Please email the property manager.

You Can Get Anything Here

November 17th, 2008
A

nd I thought I had seen it all when I saw the truck for the Shower Door Installation Service. They didn’t sell them…they simply installed them. And as nearly as I could tell, the folks who operate this business don’t sell clothes dryers either. Of course if I needed to have the vent on my clothes dryer cleaned, I would expect to have it done by a professional.

We truly seem to live in an age of specialization.

Vent Cleaning Service Truck

Sarasota Night Life Redux

June 14th, 2008

It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for more than a year, but as we continue to review and rebuild Sarasota Soundings, we’ve been reminded of another timely subject: the night-blooming cereus, reina de la noche in Spanish.

Night-Blooming Cerius

If you’re among those who bemoan the fact that Sarasota zips up the sidewalks at dusk, put down the remote and take a walk in your neighborhood. These spectacular flowers—each nearly the size of your hand—are on view for one night only in a neighborhood near you. Since plants only bloom for the purpose of procreation, it must be a heckuva night.

But carpe noctem…the season lasts for only a week or two, and the time is now.

You’ll find more night-blooming cereus photos here.

[ad#bottom]

Signs of the Times

April 28th, 2008
Sign in Fred's Window Today

Not quite a year ago, Sarasota began buzzing with the news that Fred’s Restaurant in Southside had closed its doors “for renovations.” Of course, we learned later that those renovations referred more to paper restructuring and property divestiture than to sheet-rock and two-by-fours.

After that, the palm trees wrapped in twinkle lights went dark; Fred’s sat fallow for nearly seven months.

This morning, barely six months after Fred’s splashy reopening in December of 2007, Southside residents will be chewing on the news that Fred’s has closed—again. This time around, the message is unambiguous: a simple sign on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper proclaims “Fred’s Restaurant has gone out of business. Thank you.

Talk about eye-openers. This cocktail has more ingredients than a fusion martini: chutzpah, anticipation, high-rolling risk, and glitz. And now, the chasers: at least one part schadenfreud and more than a dash of bitters.

A lot of hard-working and optimistic people are out on the street, where there are fewer and fewer places they can fill out a job application. And those places don’t hold nearly the promise that Fred’s II once did.

All of this is especially sobering for us. Late in 2007, we had been part of the cheering section for the “the new Fred’s.”

But this obit is even more stunning because it hits with the news that Petrella Bros. on the South Trail locked its doors just before this past weekend. Sadly, these closures speak volumes about the current vulnerability of many of the more ambitious restaurants in Sarasota.

Those sub-prime mortgages built a super-sized house of cards. As the collapse of our local economy claims an ever-growing list of casualties, we hope that the restaurant professionals with talent and experience have the reserves and optimism to tough it out. If they do, they’ll be the first to benefit when the financial chaos subsides.

In the meantime, the lawyers, bankers, locksmiths, and auctioneers are too busy to cook. The out-of-town investors don’t know where to get the best meals… now their choices have narrowed by two. And who will feed the vultures?

[ad#bottom]