Palmer Ranch is now seeing a flurry of new home construction with 6 new Palmer Ranch neighborhoods being built. After taking a break from 2006 to 2011, builders such as Taylor Morrison and the PutleGroup are now busy clearing land and adding new neighborhoods to one of the most desirable areas of Sarasota.  Josh Salman of the Sarasota Herald Tribune recently wrote the following article.

By Josh Salman, Sarasota Herald Tribune June 1, 2015

The South is Rising. Stymied by the Great Recession, the Palmer Ranch are of southern Sarasota County is coming roaring back.

Southwest Florida's real estate boom has made its way to Palmer Ranch a master-planned community in southern Sarasota County marked by prestigious golf courses, wandering families of sandhill cranes and quiet cow pastures.

Forgotten by homebuilders during the prolonged slump, the community known for one of the most desirable addresses in the region has seen demand for homes explode, prompting the most significant uptick in new development there in a decade.

The trend is consistent with a turnaround in housing throughout Sarasota and Manatee counties, as droves of baby boomers migrate to beach communities, picking up a retirement abode along the way.

With ample land still available, the master developer of Palmer Ranch now is sketching blueprints that could drastically reshape an area of town that had been somewhat lost amid all of the hype surrounding the University Parkway corridor.

"A lot of people who held off moving to Florida are coming down," said Justin Powell, vice president of Palmer Ranch Holdings Ltd. "The demand is almost overwhelming, and the last 24 months really exceeded what we thought would occur."

Palmer Ranch New Home Construction and New Neighborhoods

Since 1984

Started in 1984, the 5,700-acre Palmer Ranch development now has about 9,500 residential units platted. Plans ultimately call for as many as 11,550 homes. The master-planned development also has more than 3 million square feet of office, retail and industrial space. There have been 23 subdivisions included in the plan, each a unique community within Palmer Ranch's boundaries.

Powell likes to say the development offers a little something for everyone. Consumers scouting Palmer Ranch can find rentals, condos and starter family homes. But the subdivisions also rise up to more luxurious homes, including mansions that flank the prestigious TPC Prestancia golf course.

A Long Hiatus

Like the region as a whole, new construction activity in Palmer Ranch froze as the Great Recession took hold.

Aside from some commercial nodes, there was no new building from 2006 through 2011, Powell said. But as the recovery continues to gain momentum, Palmer Ranch has once again emerged as one of the most popular neighborhoods for homebuyers -- and the builders who target them.

Now, six residential projects in Palmer Ranch are navigating various stages of the development process, which would bring more than 1,600 new residences to the community. Existing homes are flying off the resale market.

"We went from no wind in the sail to so much it's almost unbelievable," Powell said. "And it's been exactly the mix we were hoping for."

Arbor Lakes Leading

The rush was sparked by Arbor Lakes, the first new development in Palmer Ranch in years. The 263-home community on about 213 acres east of Honore Avenue and south of Clark Road is now under construction. The homes at Arbor Lakes have attracted a mix of retirees and families, and the development has been so successful it has prompted more growth.

A division of Atlanta-based PulteGroup Inc. followed suit with its Sandhill Preserve Community, a 350-home development on 120 acres in Palmer Ranch. The sales there already have PulteGroup considering a second phase to the community.

Taylor Morrison also has broken ground on Cobblestone -- designed to be similar to the builder's Esplanade products in this area -- with plans for 180 homes on about 60 acres.

They are still in the planning stages, but PulteGroup and Taylor Morrison are rolling out more projects with 500 homes between them.

A high-powered multi-family developer also is building a 260-unit apartment complex to feed ballooning demand for residential rentals.

"We're very bullish on Palmer Ranch," said Steve Kempton, the Florida regional president for Taylor Morrison. "We're currently selling in two Palmer Ranch communities, and both of those are doing very well, targeting two different customers."

Great Potential

Even after the recent uptick, development opportunities remain vast in Palmer Ranch.

The master developers control more than 3,600 acres that are now vacant -- most not incorporated into the current Palmer Ranch development plan -- that will eventually give way to new construction.

Company officials are now in the early stages of discussing just what that new wave of development, which will still be branded as Palmer Ranch, could look like.

Because a lot of the land lies east of Interstate 75, much of that future development must deal with Sarasota County's long-range 2050 plan -- a blueprint for future growth in more remote areas that already has drawn complaints from homebuilders for being too expensive and cumbersome.

To increase access to the development, Honore Avenue has been extended south of Laurel Road, adding another reliever for I-75 by creating an unbroken alternative route to Manatee County.

Area real estate agents say that will help attract more families that need to commute to Venice or north into Sarasota.

Posted by Sara Leicht - SaraSellsSarasota.com on
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