Families could be locked out of new phase of downtown Sarasota Lofts on Lemon apartments
The next phase of the downtown Sarasota Lofts on Lemon apartments may now exclude many families, after the Sarasota County Commission on Wednesday refused to act on a request to reduce the complex to 93 units Wednesday to ensure a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, similar to what was built in Phase I.
The Sarasota Housing Authority received $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding in March 2022 to help pay for what is still anticipated to be a $40 million 100-unit Phase II complex featuring four floors of residences on top of a three-story parking garage.
It is being built on the same land as the 128-unit Phase I complex, which opened in October 2022. One row of surface parking for the existing complex is being used by the proposed second phase and would be replaced by spaces in the garage.
But as architects studied the potential layout, the only way to carve out 100 units was to limit the inventory to 645-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bath apartments. Plans to include more bedrooms would have reduced the number to 93 units.
“There’s definitely a need for one-bedrooms but if you’re developing a family site, we would never purposefully or intentionally develop a family development to have all one-bedroom units,” Sarasota Housing Authority CEO William Russell told the Herald-Tribune in a phone interview, after the commission took no action on the request. “Families with kids, that wouldn’t work.”
100 units or bust
While Commission Chairman Ron Cutsinger and Commissioner Mark Smith, an architect, were willing to reduce the number of apartments to house families, Mike Moran, Joe Neunder and Neil Rainford were more concerned by a need to ensure that taxpayers get their money’s worth.
When Moran asked why the reduction was needed, Russell replied: “The problem is it’s a very very tight site; this is in the downtown core.”
Because three levels of parking were needed – in part to accommodate for the surface spots from Phase I – only four residential floors could be built.
Russell also pointed out that the ground floor included a 1,600-foot space, being designed as a possible “live-work space,” that would add some commercial space at the corner of Lemon Avenue and 9th Street.
Commissioners were, for the most part, unenthused by that thought.
“Does the community need a Starbucks in the retail space?” Moran said. “I don’t get that.”
Seizing on the thought that the new Live Local Act state law would allow Lofts on Lemon to exceed the neighborhood limit and add another story, Rainford asked if that was a possibility, with more commercial space available on the ground floor.
Russell told the board that had been discussed, and is still a possibility, but that it would cost more, and the project is still about $4 million short.
How Lofts on Lemon is funded
The $7 million grant was the largest of eight made by the County Commission of a total $25 million allocated for affordable housing from the federal funding.
In addition, the project received a $10 million grant from the state of Florida from funds earmarked for Hurricane Ian recovery.
Another $19 million would be secured through tax credit financing.
Russell is talking with area foundations as part of a process to raise the additional $4 million needed to meet the project’s budget.
The $33 million Lofts on Lemon Phase I was funded by a public-private collaboration that included grants from the city of Sarasota and Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation; a low-interest loan from the Community Foundation of Sarasota; and financing through state tax credits, as well as Bank of America and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
What’s next
Because the funding is tied to the American Rescue Plan Act, there are deadlines that Sarasota County must meet for spending that money, which totaled $84.3 million spread out among 17 projects.
The ARPA funds must be spent by the end of December 2026. Sarasota County has a deadline for project contracts to be signed by the end of December 2023. That would give the county time to redirect unspent funds to other projects.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: 100-unit plan for Lofts on Lemon Phase II may limit family use
