Sarasota County gets $200M mixed-use proposal

Kevin Daves
Kevin Daves

Developer Kevin Daves proposed a $200 million mixed-use development with condominiums, retail stores, offices and entertainment space in Sarasota County.

Daves wants to put the development, called Cassia Cay, on a 31-acre site near Sarasota Square Mall. The project is pending approval by Sarasota County approval.

Daves’ company, Core Development Inc., would acquire the land for Cassia Cay once approvals have been obtained.

Daves told the Business Observer the location of Cassia Cay is “extremely underserved” with respect to retail stores and restaurants.

Core Development and Naples-based Apogee Realty Advisors LLC plan to build 203 condos, office space totaling 60,000 square feet and 178,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space.

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The condos are expected to sell at prices from $500,000 to $4 million. The Tampa office of real estate brokerage CBRE will market the commercial space at Cassia Cay.

Daves expects to start construction late next year and finish in 2018. He told the Business Observer that Cassia Cay would be patterned after the Mercato lifestyle center in Naples, which Prudential Real Estate Investors acquired in early 2015  for $240 million.

Daves is a co-developer of the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota and the upscale, golf-centered Concession community in east Manatee County.

Cassia Cay is “in exactly the same place as those projects were, in terms of potential,” Daves told the Business Observer. “It’s 31 acres on the water and U.S. 41, for one thing. If you pull back and look at the demographics in the area, this is a more logical site for development than either of the other places were.” [Business Observer]  Mike Seemuth