STEVE REID
Editor & Publisher
sreid@lbknews.com
A plan to preserve the historic façade of the Mira Mar Plaza in Downtown Sarasota cleared a hurdle last week in Sarasota City Hall.
The Sarasota City Commission voted unanimously last week to approve a comprehensive plan amendment that changes the land use designation for part of the Mira Mar Plaza property from “downtown core” to “downtown bayfront,” which will then allow an18-story redevelopment behind the historic building on Palm Avenue.
The unanimous 5-0 vote followed a hearing that drew hours of public testimony and detailed presentations from the new project’s development team.
Proponents of the amendment, including architect Rick Gonzalez and the applicant’s legal counsel, argued that the land use change was essential to fund the rehabilitation of the nearly 100-year-old Mira Mar Plaza, which has fallen into disrepair. Gonzalez, who specializes in historic preservation, said that while the building needs new foundations and structural reinforcement, a full restoration is feasible and already underway in the design phase.
As far as the residential units, each tower will have 35 condos, for a total of 70, as allowable under the current density limits.
The historic Mira Mar Hotel, originally constructed in 1922 and located at 47 South Palm Avenue, was one of Sarasota’s earliest luxury accommodations and later served as apartments and commercial space.
The hotel hosted the rich and famous. A Sarasota Times article stated: “It is safe to say that the erection of the Mira-Mar Hotel has meant as much to the development of Sarasota as any one enterprise that has yet located here.”
Seaward Development plans to save the building, but increase the allowable height on the rest of the parcel to make the economics work. The applicant argued that a downtown bayfront land use designation was essential to realizing a financially viable plan for preserving the Mira Mar. Increasing the height allowance to 18 stories, they said, would allow two residential towers behind the historic structure. Seaward says the condominium units will help fund the estimated cost of rehabilitation.
The applicant agreed that the historic Mira Mar must be rehabilitated and issued a certificate of occupancy before the new residential towers can receive one; building podiums must not exceed 60 percent lot coverage; second-floor commercial space in the preserved structure must be offered at no more than 50 percent of the market rental rate for a period of 10 years; and the building’s interstitial space (floor-to-floor gap for mechanical systems) must be minimized to limit overall massing.
In addition, the developers said they would forfeit any transfer of development rights from the historic portion of the property and committed to adding pedestrian-friendly ground-floor retail.
While Monday’s vote approved only the land use change, the project still requires a rezoning, which will come before the commission at a future public hearing. The first reading for the rezone of the site is expected to come before the Commission in July.
