After years of debate over demolition, preservation and height, the Mira Mar project on Palm Avenue is now entering its sales phase, with plans for two 18-story towers behind the restored historic structure.

The development, now called Mira Mar Residences and led by Seaward Development, recently announced new details about the project, including interior renderings and floorplans.

Mira Mar Residences will include 70 condos in two 18-story towers rising behind the surviving Mira Mar structure, with prices starting in the high $3 millions. The preserved portion of the historic complex will include retail and restaurant space along Palm Avenue. The design team includes Nichols Architects as project architect and REG Architects, led by Rick Gonzalez, as historic architect. 

The announcement adds a glossy new chapter to a project whose path through the City of Sarasota wasn't smooth. What’s now being presented as a luxury residential development began as a fight over whether one of downtown Sarasota’s oldest surviving buildings should be demolished.

The Mira Mar dates to 1922, when it opened as part of a hotel and apartment complex during Sarasota’s land boom. It once included a hotel and auditorium, though much of that has long since disappeared; the hotel itself was demolished in 1982.

Still, what remained along Palm Avenue endured. Even while the purchaser, Patrick DiPinto of Seaward Development, and his team presented reports to the City of Sarasota that pointed to a wood-frame building dangerously worn by time, water intrusion and termite damage, it still housed dozens of commercial tenants.

In 2022, the effort to demolish the building was denied by the City of Sarasota’s Historic Preservation Board after strong public opposition. Residents and preservation advocates argued that whatever the structure’s physical state, the loss of the Mira Mar would erase one of the last visible traces of Old Sarasota.

After Seaward Development’s team acquired the property in 2023, the strategy changed. Rather than returning with another demolition plan, Seaward had a different proposition: preserve the historic Mira Mar, but allow enough additional height behind it to make the preservation financially viable. By the time the proposal surfaced at a required community workshop in September 2024, the bargain was already clear. The developer argued that the towers and added height was essential to fund the rehabilitation. (As it stood, its original downtown core zoning capped height at 10 stories.)

The development application argued that taller buildings would allow smaller footprints, more separation between structures and enough value in the upper floors to help pay for the restoration, estimated at $29 million. 

In May 2025, after a daylong public hearing that drew hours of testimony, the Sarasota City Commission voted unanimously to approve a comprehensive plan amendment changing the future land use designation for part of the site from downtown core to downtown bayfront, allowing the 18-story towers.

Critics, including neighbors at The Mark condominium nearby, argued that two 18-story buildings would be out of scale with the area, set a bad precedent and alter the character of Palm Avenue. Others raised concerns about blocked views, shadows from the buildings, pedestrian experience and environmental impacts.

City of Sarasota ommissioners made clear their support came with caution. “We’re relying on the applicant’s good faith to uphold the spirit of what’s been promised today,” Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch said at the May hearing. “This is not just about restoring a building. It’s about setting a standard for what kind of development we want in downtown Sarasota—one that values history, design and accountability.”

The preserved Mira Mar structure will anchor shops and restaurants along Palm Avenue, while the Mira Mar Residences will include three- and four-bedroom units ranging from 3,300 to 6,000 square feet. Penthouses will each have an additional guest cottage. Amenities include a 19th-floor rooftop lounge with bay views; a 70-foot lap pool; wellness spaces, including indoor water therapy pools, infrared sauna, steam, and massage therapy rooms; a dog spa and open-air turf dog park; valet parking; concierge services; and luxury car and driver service. 

Mira Mar Residences arrives as downtown Sarasota is already in the middle of a broader luxury-condo wave. At The Quay, The Ritz-Carlton Residences recently topped out and is slated for completion in late 2026, adding 78 residences to the waterfront district. One Park Sarasota, another bayfront tower at The Quay, is projected to deliver 86 residences, with completion anticipated in the first quarter of 2027. And on Main Street, sales have now begun for Waldorf Astoria Residences Sarasota, an 18-story, 86-residence branded tower where construction is anticipated to begin in late 2026. 

Set against that backdrop, Mira Mar is part of a larger reshaping of downtown’s upper end, though its path has been more entangled with preservation politics than most of its peers.

Interested? Nicholle DiPinto McKiernan and Georgia Kopelousos of Coldwell Banker Realty are handling sales. For more information, click here.