adam hancock

He represents the Ritz-Carlton Residences, the brand new ones on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota, Florida. So we'll just hop right into it. The first question I'd like to ask is about geography, and then we'll get into the building and the backgrounds a little bit later. But when it comes to geography, would you mind giving us your perspective on one, this part of Southwest Florida as it exists in the state when you're trying to decide options in Florida as a whole? And then if you could take one step down further, this particular building is located in a distinct district, and can you talk to us a little bit about what's important about that one district amongst the rest of the Sarasota, Florida options?

Sure. Thank you, Adam, for having me. I'd like to just start off a little bit about how I ended up down here in Florida to begin with. I came here from downtown Chicago and I was visiting a good buddy of mine, one of my Navy buddies down in Venice. And I was spending a few weeks here, looking at St. Pete, Tampa is what I was looking at. And he said, "That's great. You can look all you want, but you're going to end up in Sarasota." And so I came up here just for a day and just absolutely fell in love with it. Looked at St. Pete, but what was St. Pete at the time? This was about nine years ago. So what was St. Pete then? But Sarasota had a definition, you knew what Sarasota was, it was a city like a town. And I started talking to all these people around town and the most important conversation I had was a gentleman on St. Arman's Circle. And I asked him, I said, "Why do you have your business here in Sarasota?" And he said, "Come with me." And we walked out on the street and he said, "What do you see?" And I said, "Tourists." And he said, "No, no, no. It's not just the tourists. Everyone that's here is just like us and that's what we all want to be surrounded by, is people just like us; successful, educated, driven, law abiding, cultural." It really struck home, and that defined Sarasota, to me, so that I found that that is why, not just the reason I moved here, but a reason why most people want to move here, is that it is just, all the people that want those things, to be surrounded by people who are educated and successful and driven and law abiding and cultural, well that's Sarasota, as how I define it. And that's what it brought me here.

So that's Sarasota in a whole, for me. But you have different things in the Sarasota area that just answer 95% of the questions. And in real estate, if you can find a house that gives 85% of what you want, hey, that's a perfect home. But Sarasota gives me 95%. There's not a whole lot of professional sports that are in the town, but all I got to do is just drive an hour, big deal, to get up to Tampa.

The downtown area, it draws a lot of people. It's just the culture, the arts, the walkability, the restaurants, later in the evening, the music. It's great. And now to narrow it down even more, let's talk about Quay, Sarasota. That area there is the downtown, when it's finished, it'll be the downtown of downtown. You're going to have your luxury condos, you'll have a luxury apartment building, you're going to have retail, restaurants, you're a 10-minute walk from the opera house, the symphony, you name it, you're pretty much within 10 minutes of everything, but you're right on the water. And you're right next to the Bay Park. That's already turning out to be absolutely gorgeous, and they've just finished, what? Phase one. So it's going to have everything that you want, walkable to everything that Sarasota has to offer, minus the beach, so you'd have to get in a car and in 10 minutes, your toes in the sand. That's pretty great.

Yeah. It's interesting because if you had one perfect scenario, and Sarasota's interesting because once you go west you get everything, where a Tampa Bay or Naples, the value props are a little bit more watered down because there are multiple of them, but here, everything's clustered in one district. And if you're saying, beach, bay, downtown, all that kind of stuff, where the Quay is based, you're saying you might rather be in the middle, from an old school real estate value perspective because with barrier island beaches, you're either on the beach or you're not. I'd rather be what made the west of the trail popular, in the middle, because you look behind, you have downtown, walkable, which is huge. And then you need access not to the water, but you need access to access the water, functional access. You need the bridges. And this sits right in the middle. So you go up to Lido and down to Siesta, and I think in the world of waterfront property, it's going to become way more scarce after these next couple of years because it feels like all the condominium projects are going to have to go east and they're going to have to go urban infill walkability and they're making them cool, but I think a lot of it's just because of the physical land access. Once the Quay and the Bay and Golden Gate Point in these areas are done, you're not going to see a ton of pre-construction water beachfront condominiums because that area's been popular for too long. Unless you knock stuff down, I mean where do you go? So I think it will be a very small conversation in the future.

Well, what do they say? The good Lord ain't making more waterfront.

Absolutely. Okay, cool. So what I'd like to ask as a way, is an entry into talking about the building itself. I want more of an elevator pitch. If we were a three-minute ride from floor one to 50 on an elevator and you had three minutes before I got off the elevator to tell me about a project I've never had any entry to, know nothing about it. I know where it's based now, but I know nothing about it. How would you describe the new Ritz-Carlton Residences?

So the new Ritz-Carlton Residences, 78, luxury of course because it's Ritz-Carlton, I shouldn't even have to say that, but 78 residences on 20 floors looking out to the southwest, a majority of them look to the southwest, and a few of them looking to the west. If you want your water views, you've got it. If you want that resort-style living, you've got it. You've got amenities, just tons of the Ritz-Carlton amenities. The service that you're going to get living there is superb. That was a word that was used by another residence in the building that was completed in '21, he says the service is superb and that's a word I don't hear very often anymore. But that's the kind of living you can expect, superb living in this condo where just about everything is taken care of for you.

And I know there are a couple of things I thought were really interesting when we spoke. So can you talk a little bit about this location? Because I know that a lot of the things with this kind of condominiums, especially in this upper tier, it's a guarantee of what you get in renderings will, in five years, is that still the view? Is that still going to be what this looks like? And I know this building in particular, one of the most unique things is even the bottom floors that face the water. I mean there's nothing in front of you.

Well, there is something in front of you, I don't want the viewers and listeners to think that there's absolutely nothing in front of you. We do call them corridor views, but they are wide corridors. Now all the residents will see the bridge, they're going to get that water view. Some of them are going to be looking a little bit more between condos on the bay, which are 988 and 888 Boulevard of the Arts. They're going to be looking a little bit more in that direction, but some of them, most of them are looking southwest. And so the views are great.

Now the higher you go, the less you see down below. And once we get past the 12th floor, we have 12-foot ceilings on our typical floor plans on floors four through 16, so those are going to, from the 12th floor, that's the penthouse level of condos on the bay. And condos on the bay are 18-story buildings. They've got their eight-foot ceilings. So once you get above that, floor 14, we don't have a 13th floor, but floors 14 through 20 all have these expansive views where you're going to see the sun break the horizon at sunset all year long.

When you get lower, some people think that that's an even better view because you've got more pop of color, you've got the palm trees, and you're going to see the sailboats that are pulling into yacht harbor. You see the manatees and the dolphins and the pelicans diving and you're a little bit more connected to the people, the land, the nature. But if you just want those expansive water views, we have both kinds of those buyers that either want to be connected or they want that unobstructed sunset view. And so we have answers for all of that.

Because you don't hear a lot, going lower is this advantageous thing beyond cost, so I think that does create a lot of texture within the building where people could seek that as an advantage. And you just don't see that with a building that's even one layer back in the Quay versus your building. Can you talk too a little bit about, as a lot of people are aware of or maybe not, that Sarasota has a height limit on their buildings, I know you guys have done some interesting things there, but also 78 units in a building that's the same height of buildings they put 149 units in, the advantages in square footage and space and the orientation of a building that someone would have in a more, I mean boutique or at least more exclusive building with fewer units but the same height?

Yeah, I was just, the advantages I guess of, I know that the Bayso for instance, or a building of this height, I know you see a lot, if they're going to max out, you go 149 and I know you guys have done things with, for instance, the penthouses, but the floor right below it, getting all of that, and I know this isn't like a 24-unit boutique building, that's just a different. That's 78. So it gives those particular owners the standard larger square footage but in the same size building. I think you covered it mostly, but I just wanted to get that across I think.

And then a lot fewer neighbors using the amenities and all that kind of stuff. So if you were saying demographics aside, if we were building an avatar of, if I'm sitting back home and you're like, this is me, that's describing me, what would be the main values that a Ritz-Carlton residence at Sarasota Bay buyer would lean towards if you had to differentiate values? So that would be the building amongst all the buildings you could do. And then beyond that, what is going to be that day-to-day lifestyle living in the Quay would provide someone as far as the bottom floor when it's all said and done, bottom floor retail, the yoga lawn, what is going to be at your disposal there?

I think the first part of your question is what's the value in something like the Ritz-Carlton Residences and that's the Ritz-Carlton lifestyle. Your home is like living in a resort because you're going to have all the amenities. This is a standalone Ritz-Carlton, and, in Sarasota, it's our fifth Ritz-Carlton Residence. There's no other city in the world that has five. There are a couple of cities that have two, several cities have two, but no more than two. And we're building our fifth one. The Ritz-Carlton Residence, that brand, loves managing buildings here. Now this isn't being built by the Ritz-Carlton. This is going to be managed by the Ritz-Carlton. It's being built by Kolter Urban, they're the developer. Just wanted to clear that one up.

But the Ritz-Carlton Residences, because it's a standalone building, it doesn't have connectivity to food and beverage or the spa like the three residences that are kind of surrounding the hotel. They all have walkways, bridges, and some connectivity, and then you've got the Beach Club residents that are connected to the Beach Club. This one is standalone. So all the amenities are going to be in-house, including your food and beverage. Food and beverage will have a social clubroom that will also serve as dining, but you can dine poolside or dine in residence and they'll deliver up to you. You've got 24-hour concierge, you've got 24-hour valet, you're going to have that spa service, you're going to have the fitness club. You're also going to have the hot and cold plunge pools and you name it, they're going to have it. Golf simulator. What they have, I think I'm excited about this amenity for these residents, and it's the outdoor sports center. The outdoor sports center is a complimentary service to the residents to rent bicycles, you don't even rent them, you just reserve them, bicycles, e-bikes, paddle boards, and kayaks. Say that you got some friends in town, y'all want to go kayaking and check out Sarasota Bay, call down there and get a reservation. Just tell them, "Hey, we need four kayaks at 10 o'clock." Walk outside, there'll be a designated launch pad and you just hop in and go. When you come back, you wave at them and say, "Thank you very much," and head back in. And that's that. And that's complimentary. It's just one of the services provided.



I want to tell a story about what I heard from a residence next door when we had Hurricane Ian. He was out of town. He and his wife were out of town back up in the northeast and they got a call from the building manager saying, "I just wanted to let you know that Hurricane Ian is heading this way. We'd like to enter your residence and make sure that everything is off the terraces and make sure everything's locked up." And he said, "Okay." So they went in and secured everything and when it was over with, called him back and said, "Can we get back in and make sure that everything's okay?" So when they finally got back from the northeast and walked in, everything was back in its original place and it was like nothing had happened and they didn't have to worry at all because it was all being handled by the staff. So that's the kind of service, that's that kind of Ritz-Carlton service.

Another residence next door, she took her car to the valet and walked in the valet noticed that her tire pressure light was on, so he just drove it down to the gas station, filled it up with air before he parked it, and then let her know, said, "Ma'am, I saw that you had some low tires. I wanted to make sure they were okay. So I had them filled up and you're all good to go now." And that's the kind of service that you get and that's the kind of living that these buyers, they may not expect it, but they're going to come to appreciate it so much versus the lifestyle in living in a condo that doesn't have that sort of management staff. It's run by the HOA and a management company comes in and you've got a concierge during the day, but only security at night, no valet, no real amenities, but you're still paying about the same amount on those smaller condos. They're going to pay about the same amount in HOAs, but they don't get the amenities.

And I know people that just refuse to live in one of those. They have to live in a Ritz-Carlton or something similar because of the service that's provided. They get the most bang for their buck when it comes to those HOAs.

Yeah. I mean think it does feel like, one, I like the 78 to 100 units. It feels like that balance of cost distribution makes a lot of sense. You're right, I mean you could have the same fees with 30 units because they're taking the worst brunt of you can't spread it across. And it feels like, I have felt a big wave of people exiting single families and moving in here versus everybody's just assuming all these folks are from these urban busy districts and that's why they're in a condo. But it's this downsize, exiting a single family and they're used to certain things and that size. But when you come to Sarasota, Florida in this district and you go single family, you get the opposite of turnkey because the land's older, if you go west of the trail, you get neighborhoods, but it's not maintenance-free by any stretch of the imagination. And especially if you're retiring from a corporate business travel world, this is the standard that a lot of people are used to and it's a hard drop off in losing that. So I think those subtleties are, I think it's super important for people to know. Are you able to talk to what is going to be, I know some of it's not determined, but what the Quay is going to be like? If people didn't know what you mean by Quay district, this 14 acres of waterfront, what is going to be surrounding when you step outside as far as commercially and retail wise and all that?

There's a private road that's going to run right through the middle of the Quay, Sarasota. So it runs perpendicular to Highway 41 and it's located right on the corner of 41 and Fruitville. So then between Fruitville, I'm sorry, between 41 and Yacht Harbor, that little marina that's there at the Quay, Sarasota, that is going to be the 14-acre area that you're talking about. The current plan is four luxury condos and a luxury apartment building. That luxury apartment building is called Cordelia. It's 12 stories, I believe it's 240 residences or apartments, very high end. But the first floor of that is all going to be retail and restaurant space.

So I know there's one section on the south end of that building right there at Fruitville and 41 that is designated for a restaurant. The type of restaurant, I've heard that they're looking to fill that spot, would be like, but not necessarily Tommy Bahamas. I'm not saying that it is, it's just something of that level. We also have another restaurant, I can't say what it is because they haven't technically signed the contract, but it's 99.9% done, and it's a high-end steak and seafood. It's the worst-kept secret in Sarasota, I just don't want to be the one on video being the one to say where it is.

But then you've got Bayso, 149 units. You've got the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota, which was finished in 2021, with another 73 units there. You've got the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota Bay, which is going to be right next door to the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota, and also right behind, Bellhaven. Then you have One Park. One Park is on two different lots, the road goes right in between those two lots, lot nine and lot one. I think there are 128 residences there. That is also to have some retail and restaurant space there as well. So at least three restaurants. And I bet when it's all said and done, just in that little area, you're going to have at least four, probably five. And then you've got restaurants right across 41. Well, you've got Jack Dusty's at the Ritz-Carlton over there. You've got Bridges, which is at the Embassy Suites. You are going to have, I think they're calling it Boulevard Bistro. That's been the talk, and I heard maybe that's changing, I don't know yet, but that's all right there. You've got Sage, which is about a minute's walk from the Quay, Sarasota. That's a great restaurant. And then the Rosemary District is right there. And I'm sure you've talked about the Rosemary District before and that's a really exciting project as well.

Yeah. I think that brings your downtown of downtown conversation, of people conceptualizing that all of this stuff sits right in front of all of downtown Sarasota. That's what I mean by going there, you get everything. And Gregg's talking about all this stuff that doesn't exist at maturity yet. Rosemary is one of the most progressive districts, but that's the fringe of the huge downtown, where we sit here today, that already exists. So you have all of that kind of stuff. This is only going to add to the conversation. And then this puts you in a waterfront district where you kind of have your little world. It feels like a little island kind of thing across the Tamiami Trail. So at maturity, you're going to have everything that Sarasota has to offer in every single capacity, all the beaches, all the shops. It's only going to get better.

You're about 10 minutes away from anything that you want to do. When I was selling Bayso, we were there at the corner of Central and Maine, so that's considered the very center of downtown. And I would walk from there to show the site there at Bayso, and it is a 10-minute stroll, that's just taking your time. You can be from the Quay, Sarasota to the center of downtown in a 10-minute stroll, and it's easy to get wherever you want to go. And then, like I said earlier, 10 minutes, if you want to go to Lido Beach, you're 10 minutes from parking and putting your toes in the sand.

It's a special location for sure. So I know you touched on your background a little bit, but one of the things about, I know when I first dealt with you when you were at Bayso and with condominium, pre-construction especially, the representatives of the buildings, I thought it was just a whole level different experience than any single-family new construction I've ever dealt with, custom or not, of the specific people chosen, their background, the pride they take in the buildings, how much they know about the area, it's very interesting. So can you talk a little bit about your evolution of how you ended up in this world with Kolter and the evolution of how you got to the Ritz-Carlton Residences and why you were interested in this kind of world? I think that would add a lot of texture to your point of view in the whole conversation.

Before I got into the new construction with Kolter, I've been a real estate agent here in Sarasota for going on let's say eight and a half years. I've been with Premier Sotheby's for eight. So I was selling normal, I wouldn't say normal, nothing's normal here in Sarasota. I was doing resale and my business was starting to take off, and I also had a little coaching business on the side. I was coaching agents on how to increase their sphere of influence. And I got asked if I was interested in maybe doing a new construction build and I said, "I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing." And they came to me again and said, "We'd like to talk to you." And so I ended up interviewing, because I don't like to turn down interviews, I didn't say no to you.

Appreciate that.

Sure. I don't like to turn down interviews. So as we were talking and we kind of worked out a deal that I would go and take on and partner with somebody who had experience, and a well-known new construction person, I won't name her, just protecting the innocent, but she ended up getting, the day that she was offered the Bayso, she was also offered another project and she took that one instead and was disappointed I didn't get to work with her, but then we ended up doing a lot of interviews and ended up working with my partner, Lisa, Lisa Otte, and she and I have been just peas and carrots. I needed to find somebody, that they found somebody that was just the opposite of me, and I think that worked out well.

That's how we did Bayso. Now, we sold Bayso out in record time. No one's ever sold anything for Kolter in 11 months for 149 residences at an average price point of 1.4 million. And then I think that that success is what brought us to the Ritz-Carlton. We knew the developer, to be honest, I probably would not have gone with any other developer to change my business model from resale into new construction. But Kolter just has such a great reputation here, they get the buildings built, they take care of their buyers, they do what they say they're going to do. And so when they offered the Ritz-Carlton, it was an easy switch.

Cool. Thank you. Okay, so I have one question I like to ask at the end of all these and then we can talk about some takeaways or anything that would be significant timing-wise or anything else you want to get across that we missed. Okay. So, say we never had the podcast, no videos on the internet, there's not a Ritz-Carlton website, there's nothing, and someone watched all the videos and they only had this one question, your answer to this one question to decide on, "Oh, that sounds like me," or, "I want to research further," or something like that. If there was nothing that existed and you could just say three statements or words or something, three things about this one project if you could only say three, what would those three things be?

I love these questions.

I should have told you this in advance I guess.

Yeah, appreciate that. I think most importantly if you don't know anything and you can't see anything, the reputation of the developer is. The reputation of the developer is that they get their buildings built and do a great job doing it. It's always a good building. They built The View, they built The Mark, they built the Ritz-Carlton Residences, they're almost finished now with Bayso, and now they're building the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota. So all of those have great reputations here in town. You're buying on a great reputation.

Two, it's the Ritz-Carlton Residences. You're going to get immaculate service and be well taken care of. And three, I'm going to go back to something that Kolter Urban has said to us a lot, and that is that they've built, I think they've built close to 60 buildings, high-rise condos, and this is the nicest building that they have ever planned to build. And that is, not only are you going on the reputation of a great developer and a great management company with the Ritz-Carlton Residences, but also it's the nicest one that they've ever built.

Okay. No, I love that. That's great. Okay, cool. I think we covered everything that I'd want to cover. Is there anything that, as far as next steps or timing or engagement or anything you would like to use this platform to get across if anything?

Well, I will say, just talking about this project here, we will be breaking ground in December of this year and looking to be completed in the first quarter of 2026. That is the planned schedule. So if this is interesting to your viewers and listeners, then this is the time to get in for the reservations. We're not going to contract yet, that's to be determined when we do that, but right now we're just grabbing reservations and you reserve your residence at the price of today.

If this is something you want to think about, as a buyer, I would get in as early as you can and get it reserved because there's no punishment. You don't lose anything for reserving and canceling. Now, once you get into the contract and you're a couple of years into it, that's hard to back out of, but backing out of the reservation period is the thinking period. That's the time you need to just hold it and think about it because you're going to have a month or two before we go to contract. You'll have plenty of heads up, "Hey, you're going to be going to contract at this time, really ramp up your thought process if you want to stay in, ask the questions you need to ask."

So I think that's something that people need to... I've seen people get hooked on a residence, and this was not just with Bayso, but also with this project now. I had somebody for two months, they just kept thinking about it, thinking about it, and the third month came around and he decided, "You know what? That is the residence I want." And it was already reserved and I said, you got to just use this time to think about it.

Yeah. That's good advice.

So that's important. Anytime, and that's not just on this one, on any sort of project, if you're in the reservation stage, just go ahead and reserve it because you can cancel and get all your... There's like a $50,000 reservation fee and sometimes they're less and sometimes they're more, but you're not going to lose that money shall you cancel before the contract goes hard.

Yeah. You're just floating liquidity. Okay, cool. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on. In the clip after this for the audience, I'll tell you how to get connected with Gregg and we'll give you all the additional contact information there. But Gregg, thanks so much for coming on. I appreciate it.

All right, my friends. That is a wrap on today's episode of the Condo Guide Video Podcast