Michael Braga of the Sarasota Herald Tribune recently published a great article about the Top Ten Luxury Home Sales for Sarasota in 2013 and who bought those homes.  The complete article is below with pictures from Michael Braga and the Herald Tribune.  Sarasota is such a great place to live and attacts people from all over.  Enjoy the Article!

Top Ten Luxury Home Sale in 2013
By Michael Braga of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune

A well-known comedienne, the founders of a military technology company, the chief executive of Sherwin Williams and two real estate developers were among the top 10 luxury home buyers in Manatee and Sarasota counties during 2013.  There also was a conveyor belt company owner and software developer.  But the largest contingent of big-dollar buyers in this elite group were hedge fund managers: Mark A. Standish, Scott T. Ramsey and Jeffrey N. Vinik.

All of them — even Vinik, who owns the Tampa Bay Lightning — are what real estate agent Kim Ogilvie describes as “non-Lamborghini-driving Wall Street money.”

“They have lots of money, but it’s quiet money,” said Ogilvie, an agent with Michael Saunders & Co. “They’re more evolved. Their egos are tamed. They don’t have to show off.”  They also are used to making big-money decisions in a hurry.

Like other top 10 buyers, they chose the beaches and cultural amenities of Sarasota over Naples and Palm Beach — paying anywhere from $4.25 million to $10 million for unobstructed views of the water.  Three opted for houses on Siesta Key, three chose Longboat Key, two went for Lido Key and St. Armands and others bought houses on Casey Key and the Harbor Acres neighborhood near downtown Sarasota.

"Most of the buyers are in their 50s and 60s,” said Jon Fox, a Michael Saunders agent who helped one of the couples find a house on Longboat Key. “They have the cash and this is a good place to put it.”
 

Flamingo Ave. Siesta KeyNo. 1:
3410 Flamingo Ave., Siesta Key

$10 Million

Kenneth and Grace Solinsky founded a New Hampshire company that makes night vision scopes and laser aiming devices for the military and law enforcement.  Started in 1988, the couple grew Insight Technology to 1,200 employees and more that $200 million in revenues before selling it in April 2010 to L-3 Communications Corp., which also has a presence in Sarasota County.

In February, the Solinskys paid $10 million for a 6,400-square-foot house on Siesta Key. It was the region’s most expensive home purchase since 2011, when a British couple bought a Longboat home for $12.5 million.

1452 Hillview West of the TrailNo. 2:
1452 Hillview Drive, West of the Trail, Sarasota

$7 Million

Mark A. Standish heads a proprietary trading operation for the Royal Bank of Canada — basically a hedge fund that invests the bank’s money.

His group, which consists of 125 traders based in New York, consistently generated about $1 billion a year in revenues for RBC. But Standish is expected to leave the bank this year after helping it comply with the Volcker Rule, which limits a bank’s ability to engage in high-risk trading for its own account.  Now 52, he is widely expected to set up an independent global arbitrage and trading operation.

In March, Standish and his wife, Kim, spent $7 million to buy this house in the Harbor Acres neighborhood of Sarasota.  Since then, they gutted the modernist dwelling and hired designer Pamela Hughes to fill it with goodies, including porcelain tile, a Hoberman sphere lighting system and a fireplace that will be built on top of a meteorite.  “It’s going to be the most fabulous house when we’re done,” Hughes said.

Lido Key 1219 Westway DriveNo. 3:
1219 Westway Drive, Lido Key
$6.35 Million


Scott T. Ramsey, 56, heads Denali Asset Management LLP, which uses fundamental and technical analysis to exploit short-term movements in interest rates, currencies, commodities and equity indices.  Featured in the book “Hedge Fund Market Wizards,” Ramsey watches different markets and how they relate to each other over time. If long-term relationships between prices break down for whatever reason, he sees it as a trading opportunity.

“It’s point and click — instant execution,” he told HedgeWorld. com in 2001. “You know what you’ve done in a fraction of a second.”

In January of last year, Ramsey spent $6.35 million to buy this house off Westway Drive in Lido Key.

No. 4:
6301 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key
$5.7 Million


A native of San Antonio, Texas, Gordon V. Hartman started his own land development and homebuilding company at 23 and built it into the city’s largest by 2005.  With impeccable timing, he sold the company at the height of the boom and shifted his focus to sports teams and philanthropy. He owns the San Antonio Scorpions professional soccer franchise and spent $32.5 million to build a theme park for children with developmental disabilities.  Named after his daughter, Morgan’s Wonderland is a completely wheelchair accessible park that allows children with special needs to ride swings, slip down slides, play in the sand and take train rides around a lake.

In April, Hartman and his wife, Margaret, paid $5.7 million for this house on Longboat Key.

No. 5:
703 Casey Key Road, Casey Key

$5 Million

Rosie O’Donnell is the best known of the top 10 buyers.

A 51-year-old stand-up comedienne, TV talk show personality and actress, she paid $5 million in October for this house on Casey Key. She will live here with her wife, Michelle, and five adopted children and does not intend to be a recluse.  O’Donnell already has scheduled five shows at McCurdy’s Comedy Theater from Jan. 17 through Jan. 19.  She sold a mansion on Miami’s Star Island last year for $16.5 million.

725 Mangrove Point, Siesta KeyNo. 6:
725 Mangrove Point Road, Siesta Key

$4.88 Million

The youngest of the top 10 buyers, 42-year-old Steven D. Seymour made his fortune in the software business.

In 1999, he co-founded Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., a publicly traded company that provides training and management software for companies all over the world and boasts 13 million users.  Customers — including Commonwealth Bank, TGI Friday’s, Walgreens and MetroPCS — use the software to recruit, train and manage employees.  Over the past two years, Seymour has sold 133,000 shares of Cornerstone stock for a total of $5.2 million.

Seymour paid $4.875 million for this house on Siesta Key in July.

560 Harbor Point, Longboat KeyNo. 7:
560 Harbor Point Road, Longboat Key
$4.75 Million


Chris Connor is the chief executive of Sherwin Williams, the well-known, Ohio-based paint manufacturer. But it is his wife who is on the deed to this Longboat Key house.  Sara H. Connor paid $4.75 million in May.

“The home is so well planned,” said Cheryl Loeffler, an agent with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty who listed it. “It has beautiful views from every room.”

Chris Connor joined Sherwin Williams in 1983 and became chief executive in 1999.

His annual salary is $1.22 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents, and he has received nearly $27 million in total compensation over the last three years.  Jon Fox, a Michael Saunders agent, said he worked with the Connors for more than two years before they made their decision.  “Mrs. Connor had done some work at Sarasota Memorial Hospital when she was very young,” Fox said. “She knew Sarasota and had fond memories.”

642 Ranger Lane, Longboat KeyNo. 8:
642 Ranger Lane, Longboat Key
$4.5 Million


Troy D. Dolan owned and operated a Blairsville, Ind. company that sold and serviced conveyor belts used in mining operations and grocery stores.  Started by his father in 1980, Conveyor Services Corp. employed 350 at eight sites in the United States and one in Chile.  A British manufacturer — Fenner PLC — bought it for $92 million in 2008.

Dolan paid $4.5 million for this house in Longboat Key.

 
220 Tenacity Lane, Siesta KeyNo. 9:
220 Tenacity Lane, Siesta Key

$4.25 Million

William C. Knapp II is the chairman and chief executive of Knapp Properties, one of the largest real estate development firms in Iowa.  Started by his uncle in 1952, the company employs about 200 and manages more than 2.5 million square feet of office, retail and warehouse space. Its real estate brokerage, Iowa Realty, maintains a stable of more than 500 agents.

Knapp paid $4.25 million for this Siesta Key house in March.


112 N. Washington Drive, St. Armands KeyNo. 10:
112 N. Washington Drive,
St. Armands Key
$4.25 Million


A famously successful hedge fund manager and owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jeffrey N. Vinik owns at least two other luxury dwellings in the Tampa Bay area.  He and his wife, Penny, paid $9.2 million for two houses in Tampa’s Palma Ceia neighborhood in 2010. They then bought a 12-year-old house on Lido Key for $4.25 million in April and knocked it down to make room for a new one. 

After graduating from Duke University with a degree in civil engineering in 1982, Vinik went to work for Fidelity Investments, the giant Massachusetts-based mutual fund company.  He was so successful at Fidelity that he was tapped to lead its flagship Magellan Fund in 1992. But a bad bet on bonds caused him to leave the firm and start his own investment firm in 1996.  News reports show that Vinik grew his new fund from $800 million to $11.8 billion by 2008. He then closed it just as the Great Recession got under way and returned investor money.

Two years later, Vinik paid $110 million for the Lightning and another $40 million to revamp the Tampa Bay Times Forum. He also owns a minority stake in the Boston Red Sox.  The Tampa Tribune described him in a 2010 article as a “quiet, unassuming and not altogether athletic looking man who drives himself to work and vacations with his family at Disney World.”

Posted by Sara Leicht - SaraSellsSarasota.com on

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