Condo sells for boom time price

Sarasota Herald Tribune

By Tom Bayles

SARASOTA - A penthouse at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota sold for $3.3 million on Monday, or about $125,000 above what it last sold for during the height of the housing boom.

The Ritz-Carlton penthouse is nearly 5,000 square feet, with four bedrooms and three-and-one-half baths. It has wide views of the Gulf of Mexico. The price - $3.3 million - is the highest paid for a luxury condominium in Sarasota County since August 2008.


The penthouse was listed Jan. 26 for $3.995 million and was bound to contract in 16 days.

The 18th-floor penthouse includes an entry foyer, large living room, formal dining room, eat-in kitchen and a library.

The condo has wide views of the Gulf of Mexico.

Property records show that the penthouse has been owned since April 2005 by William E. Wallace III and Rose S. Wallace. The sellers were represented by Linda Driggs of the Main Street office of Michael Saunders & Co.

The buyer, whose name was not released, was represented by Prudential Palms Realty.

The penthouse deal came after the March 4 sale of a $7.125 million mansion on Longboat Key that marked the highest-priced single residential sale for the region in nearly a year.

The estate's sales price represented a $3.375 million drop from the September listing price of $10.5 million, but the property at 5871 Gulf of Mexico Drive went under contract in a little more than four months.

Before that sale, the largest area residential sale in the past year was an $8 million beachfront home at 4067 Shell Road on Siesta Key.