Now that it’s January and everyone and their grandma is in town, you’ve probably noticed, while you're sitting in high-season traffic, the big, concrete rectangles staring back at you from Washington Boulevard as you come downtown from the south. If you’ve been wondering what exactly is taking shape there beside Payne Park, here’s an update and a follow-up to what we first reported back in 2023.

It's a 50-unit, all-rental townhome project now expected to complete construction in late 2026, and it will include two U.S. 301-facing retail spaces. 

The updated schedule is a shift from earlier projections, which pointed to a fall 2025 completion window.

The project replaces a block of older low-rise buildings that included the Gratitude House/Gratitude Club recovery meeting space and the Victor Lundy-designed Waldman Building, along with several other small retail and office structures and surface parking lots. 

The roughly two-acre property sold in June 2023 for $7.5 million. PTM Partners, based in Fort-Lauderdale, is the developer.

According to Alden Jones, director of business development for the project’s builder Kellogg & Kimsey, the project will be entirely rental, not condominium, and will include a mix of two- and three-bedroom plans with garages, feeling more like home-living than apartment living. The units will be spread across six buildings arranged around a central amenity area with an outdoor pool and an amenity house.

The project is arriving as Sarasota’s asking-rent market has cooled from its pandemic-era highs. Zillow’s rent index put Sarasota’s average rent at about $2,181 as of late 2025, down 3.1 percent year over year. Apartments.com, as of this month, listed the average rent in Sarasota at $1,764 (with one-bedrooms averaging $1,764 and two-bedrooms $2,083), while Zumper’s January 2026 rent report put the citywide average at about $1,810 (one-bedrooms $1,664 and two-bedrooms $1,804). This project aims to deliver above market rate rents and Robbins describes the units as “high-end luxe.”

On the commercial side, retail space will front U.S. 301. Robbins Commercial sold the land to the developer and is handling retail leasing. 

Kevin Robbins of Robbins Commercial said there are two storefront spaces now being marketed: one is 3,000 square feet and the other is 2,000 square feet. He said the group has been considering a café or breakfast-and-lunch food-and-beverage concept for one space, and a medspa or yoga-oriented destination for the other.

Jones said the project has been in the works since 2021 under a client group Kellogg & Kimsey has worked with previously, including on a Moxy Marriott hotel in St. Petersburg. He adds that the project’s visibility along U.S. 301 has generated steady attention from residents who have noticed the ongoing construction from the road. 

Downtown and close-to-downtown Sarasota’s rental pipeline is expanding alongside the condo boom, with several new apartment projects underway. Among the largest are Bayside Club Apartments on North Cocoanut Avenue (253 rental units) and Aspire on Tenth on 10th Street (157 rental units, including 47 affordable units). Another major project, Artist Court Residences on South Washington Boulevard, is planned for 242 rental units, including 26 attainable/affordable units.

Several smaller rental projects are also in the mix, including 2101 Ringling, a 22-unit project on Ringling Boulevard with two attainable units, and The Boheme, a nine-unit building planned for Kumquat Court with one affordable unit. Adagio Sarasota on Ringling Boulevard is also being proposed, and includes 69 attainable/affordable rental apartments alongside 100 luxury units for sale.