Five Projects Rising in Sarasota Right Now — and the Content Each One Deserves
Two bayfront towers, a boutique build at Fruitville, a historic Palm Avenue restoration and 208 housing-authority units are all moving at once. That's a hiring map for the trades — and a shot list.
5 min read · July 6, 2026 · Florida Construction Media
The story
A construction fence is the cheapest advertising in town — it announces that money is moving, and everyone slows down to look. By that measure, downtown Sarasota is currently the loudest ad market on the Gulf Coast: five projects in and around the core are climbing, finishing, or freshly permitted this summer. Together they map who is buying construction work here right now. One at a time, they map something more useful — a shot list.
The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota Bay. Kolter Urban's 20-story, 78-residence tower at the Quay topped out in December 2025, with Moss as general contractor and delivery tracking toward late 2026, per the Business Observer. The structure is done; the coming months on Quay Commons belong to the finish trades.
One Park Sarasota. A short walk away, the 18-story, 86-residence condominium with ground-floor retail neared its own topping-out in late February after an October 2024 groundbreaking, the Observer reports, with completion anticipated in early 2027. Florida YIMBY's site reporting describes interior framing, masonry and MEP rough-in running on the lower floors while the frame closes out above.
The Edge. At Cocoanut Avenue and Fruitville Road, this 10-story, 27-residence boutique condominium topped out in December with completion expected this fall and Voeller Construction leading the build, per Florida YIMBY — a locally built job running on $46 million in construction financing reported by the Business Observer.
Mira Mar Residences. In April the city issued the construction permit for twin 18-story towers holding 70 condominiums behind the century-old Mira Mar building on South Palm Avenue, per the Observer. Suffolk Construction — coming off the Waldorf Astoria New York restoration — is the general contractor, and the sequence is the story: rehabilitate the historic structure first, then raise the towers, with completion expected by the end of 2028.
Lofts on Lemon II and Cypress Square II. The Sarasota Housing Authority broke ground last fall on 208 affordable units across two sites near downtown, per the Business Observer, with the Lemon Avenue phase expected to be ready for residents late this year.
A sixth is warming up behind them: demolition at the Five Points site of the Waldorf Astoria Residences is slated for this summer ahead of a projected 2027 groundbreaking — with Moss, again, as GC.
Five stakes in the ground · Illustration: Florida Construction Media
What it means for you
Look at who is signing the checks. A national contractor with a historic-restoration résumé (Suffolk), a large Florida builder running two downtown jobs at once (Moss), a local GC proving out a boutique high-rise (Voeller), and a public housing authority delivering production multifamily on top of the metro's larger apartment wave. Four different buyers of subcontract work, and none of them hires off a kitchen-remodel gallery. They hire on risk: staffing, schedule, site discipline, claims history.
The phase stagger matters more than any single address. Two sites are entering finish season — tile, stone, millwork, paint, MEP trim, pool and landscape packages at the Ritz-Carlton and The Edge. One Park sits mid-cycle: glazing, masonry, rough-in, then a long interior build-out into 2027. Mira Mar opens with specialty restoration — masonry repair, plaster, historic windows — before shell construction even starts. The housing authority work is volume framing, roofing and flooring. Whatever your trade touches, at least one of these fences has your package behind it within twelve months.
And when the fences come down, the neighborhoods inherit the demand. On the unit counts reported above, these five projects represent roughly 470 new households across the Quay, Cocoanut, Palm Avenue and the Lemon Avenue corridor — most arriving with no local contractor relationships and, in the condo towers, an immediate appetite for the closets, built-ins, AV and terrace work no base finish package includes. Foot traffic follows, and so does search interest in these project and street names — attention very little local content is competing for.
The skyline keeps its scaffolding on · Downtown Sarasota · Photo: Stellar Media Collective
The play
- If you're a sub on any of these jobs, film for the next bid. With the GC's permission, capture crew size, mobilization, and sequence — the material that answers a construction manager's actual question, which is risk. That's the developer-facing portfolio: built like a bid package, not a brag reel. A sub coming off the Ritz-Carlton job with footage to prove it walks into the Waldorf conversation already vetted.
- If you want onto these sites, introduce yourself on camera. The GC names are public — Moss, Suffolk, Voeller. A 90-second piece from a supplier or specialty trade that answers what you carry, at what volume, on whose schedule travels further inside a project team than a line card. Mira Mar is the standout target: restoration-capable masonry, plaster and window trades are scarce, and the contractor hiring them just finished one of the most watched restoration jobs in the country.
- If you remodel nearby, ride the street names. People searching "Mira Mar" or "the Quay" this year are researching addresses, not buying condos. Neighborhood-specific project stories — Palm Avenue, the Rosemary District, the bayfront blocks — are cheap to own now and compound every time a milestone story puts those names back in the news.
- If you serve new owners, work the delivery calendar. The Edge this fall, the Ritz-Carlton by year's end, One Park in early 2027: closings cluster, and every closing is a customization project on a predictable clock. Content answering what new tower owners upgrade first will be waiting exactly where they look.
Each of these sites cost someone tens of millions to stage. Standing in front of one with a camera and something specific to say costs an afternoon.
Briefing published July 6, 2026; project details are from the sources linked above and are the publications' own. Florida Construction Media is published by Stellar Media Collective, Sarasota.