City Moves to Purchase Land and Build Attainable Workforce Housing
Sarasota City Manager, Marlon Brown introduced to the Coalition of City Neighborhoods (CCNA) an exciting and promising initiative to bring workforce attainable housing into downtown Sarasota at their April 6th Meeting. The initiative is an opportunity to create attainable workforce housing downtown for close to 400 working individuals just off Main Street using both the City of Sarasota’s Affordable Housing Density Bonus and the State of Florida’s Live Local Act.
In an unprecedented move at their April 15th meeting the Sarasota City Commission unanimously approved a plan to purchase two parcels in downtown Sarasota to build two apartment buildings with nearly 200 rental units for workers who have been priced out of living in the city where they work.
Marlon said in an ideal timeframe, review and permitting would take 9-12 months and construction could start as early as mid-2025, with an anticipated occupancy in mid to late 2027. As Marlon has said, “this is a game changer”.
