How a Bolivian developer chose Sarasota to build a 16-story hotel and condo tower

Rodrigo Trepp has been involved in the construction of 13 high-rise buildings in Latin America, but his next development project − and first in America −will be built in Sarasota.

Trepp is leasing about 2,000 square feet of office space off Orange Avenue in Sarasota and opened a sales gallery on Main Street for the 35 condo units available in the 16-story mixed use downtown development called SOTA.

SOTA Hotel & Residences will include 120 hotel rooms and the condo units at 1703 Main Street, where Italian Pizzeria Il Panificio has served pizza by the slice for years. Trepp said the ground floor restaurant will be managed by the current owners of Il Panificio, but did not indicate what type of food it will serve.

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The hotel and condo project is being developed by a partnership between Trepp Development, led by Trepp as president, and Michael Ealy, president and CEO of Nassau Investments.

Trepp recently met with the Herald-Tribune for a Q&A:

Tell me how you discovered Sarasota and what do you think of the area?

One day we discovered Sarasota. My co-developer Michael Ealy had the option on the land where we are going to build SOTA. So we came down here and just loved it. It’s a treasure. The arts, the culture, the people. We just loved it. We saw the art galleries and we saw the opera. I have two kids, and they loved it, too. It was perfect. On my first trip to Sarasota we walked around downtown Sarasota, visited all the shops. We also went to Lido Beach and visited Longboat Key. Our family purchased a condo on Longboat and later we bought a house in Lakewood Ranch. In a way, I am experiencing both the island life and the mainland life at the same time. In Sarasota, you have the best of all worlds. It was love at first sight.

I have heard that you met Michael Ealy on Linkedin just a few years ago. Can you tell me about how LinkedIn played a role in getting this development deal in motion?

I’m a big believer and this, I think, is a perfect example. God is great. We were in Bolivia, and we were locked out in the first COVID stage for five months. It was pretty awful. I had a couple of properties on the east coast (of Florida). I had some problems with getting repairs completed on those properties to prepare them for sale. And then I saw Michael Ealy on LinkedIn and I reached out about investing with him, but I needed help selling the east coast properties I owned. He was great and put me in touch with his team and he helped me rehab those properties and sell them. Then we became friends and he saw how much development we have done in Bolivia. We felt good with each other. Then we met in person, and he showed me the Sarasota property, which we just got final sign-off from the Development Review Committee this past week.

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Administrative approval has been a bit of a touchy subject here in Sarasota as it removes City Commission approval. Your project has been going through the Development Review Committee since July 2021. Could you talk a bit about that process and how it compared to what you had to do in Bolivia?

You know, the administrative process, the city is very pristine in their work. Of course, there is a lot of time delay. There’s a lot of people involved, and Sarasota has been discovered. There were a lot of projects competing for meeting time. It just took time. We were able to resolve every comment they had. Back in Boliva, this size lot is medium to big. We have smaller lots to build taller buildings in Boliva. So it was not that hard to me to blend in all the things the city required. We took a lot of time, but we have at last had our DRC sign off. Now everything is just finalizing construction drawings and getting our permits in. It took a lot of time, but all the legal security you have in the United States, it is amazing. It is such a great country and Florida is a great state.

What do you mean by legal security?

Being from Latin America, it is not that formal and not that secure. You always feel like you are walking forward with just one eye open, hoping not to stumble into a problem. Here it takes time, but you know what you are facing. For example, last year in Bolivia there was a strike at the end of the year that lasted around 40 days where I lived in Santa Cruz. My company had to deliver a condominium tower by the end of November. Because of the strike, everything got delayed. That also meant financial delays, repayment, everything was delayed. So, I'm just about to deliver now. The political uncertainty is a challenge. If the government pulls out a new regulation, they shake up all the industry. That is what is hard over there. Over here, if you have an approval and have done the right things, you have certainty. From the outsider’s perspective, that is a gift. You work hard all your life so that you can have a legacy. Here you can do that. Back at home, in Bolivia, it is not like that. Great, amazing people in Bolivia. Family is there and the weather is also amazing, but in the development business — in all types of business — you need some type of certainty from the country so you can move forward. We do not have that in Bolivia, but here in America you do.

Could you talk about your property, located between the One Main Plaza near Washington Street and the retail hub of Orange Avenue, and how you see it fitting into downtown?

We see it as the bridge. We are going to bring both sides of Main Street together. You have a lot going on west of Orange. We feel like our development will bring a lot of movement to eastern Main Street. The Belpointe development (a more than 400-unit rental project a few parcels east of SOTA) will add lots of full-time residents. Our project is also going to have a ground floor restaurant. We want to support downtown merchants as we hope to bring a lot of activity to the area.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Why did a Bolivian developer choose Sarasota for his next project?