A true beach resort, the Gulf & Bay Club on Siesta Key offers luxurious leisure living, with great amenities and excellent service, among lush, beautifully kept surroundings. The divided entrance on Midnight Pass Road has pretty, small water fountains in front of the signage wall, paver roadways, and ample tropical shrubbery – a preview of more to come inside.

Centrally located on the barrier island, just a few blocks from of Crescent Beach, the Gulf & Bay Club has its own access to the pristine white Siesta sands, with 800 feet of private beachfront. Siesta Village is within easy walking and biking distance.

The Stickney Point Bridge, a little more than a mile to the south, provides convenient travel to the mainland for shopping, entertainment and restaurants. Downtown Sarasota is a mere 20-minute drive.

“I consider it one of the best three resorts on Siesta Key,” said Judy Berger, an agent with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty. “If my clients want to purchase a place to use and/or rent out, I always take them to Gulf & Bay Club.”

She added, “Everybody loves it there. A lot of seasonal renters come back every year into the same unit.”

Developed and built from 1979 to 1986 on 32 acres, the Gulf & Bay Club has 392 condos in five large, seven-story buildings (labeled A through E), which envelop a pleasant lagoon like a horseshoe open toward the beach. An exterior road runs in back where covered carports provide assigned parking for the units.

A sixth structure (F Building) is smaller – only five stories high – and backs directly onto the beach.

There are two wooden bridges spanning the interior lake. One is at the bottleneck channel that divides the lagoon into two sections. The other leads from both shores to an island in the middle of the larger lake, with picnic tables and palm thatch umbrellas. Two large water fountains, which can be lit up at night, send scintillating spray into the air.

Numerous walking paths connect the buildings and activity facilities. Manicured lawns, mature palm trees, and flowering bushes are everywhere. Weathered, wooden walkways cross a strip of mangroves on the way to the white sand beach.

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Residents and guests can enjoy three heated swimming pools, hot tubs, eight tennis courts, pickleball and shuffleboard, indoor basketball/racquetball courts, and barbecue and picnic areas. Other amenities include two clubhouses with pool tables and media facilities, a fitness center with a trainer and masseuse, six dry saunas, and an electric vehicle charging station.

The two- and three-bedroom condos in the Gulf & Bay Club range in size from just 959 to over 2,040 square feet of living space. Berger’s listing at 5780 Midnight Pass Road, Apt 110B (B Building), is a 3-bed 2-bath unit with 1,361 square feet under air, priced at $1.35 million.

“It’s an L-shaped end unit on the ground floor with windows on two sides, so it feels like a single-family home,” Berger said. “It has a screened in lanai, with sliders out to the lawn, where you can sit and watch the beautiful sunsets. Out the front door, it’s only 30 steps to the carport.”

She continued, “My owners stripped the unit to the studs and renovated every inch of it for their own use. It’s as close as you can get to heaven and be right at the beach.”

According to Berger, the demographics of Gulf & Bay Club include some year-round residents and investors. But most owners use it as a second home or vacation place.

“One family I know has lived there since the complex was built. The parents are deceased, but a number of the children purchased units for their own use. They have friends and relatives who live there as well,” she explained. “It shows the longevity of the Club and how much people like it there.”

There is a full-service management company with friendly staff eager to assist. An on-site rental program office helps residents and investors who wish to lease out their condos. Regulations call for a 28-night minimum stay, a longer commitment than the one-week requirement of many other vacation facilities on Siesta Key.

Quarterly condo fees of $4001 cover the upkeep of all amenities and common areas.

Currently, there are five condos on the market in Gulf & Bay Club, ranging in asking price from $899,000 to $1.695 million.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Market Snapshot: Gulf & Bay Club an idyllic beach resort on Siesta Key