A second phase of the Bayside apartment development is moving ahead near Sarasota’s bayfront, extending one of the Rosemary District’s larger mixed-use projects north to 10th Street.

Real estate firm Allen Morris Co. has closed on a $43 million construction loan from Affinius Capital LLC, in partnership with Axonic Capital LLC, for Bayside North, a seven-story residential rental building planned for 1250 10th St. The project is the second phase of the broader $250 million Sarasota Bayside development, which is already under construction next door. 

The new building is planned for a 41,947-square-foot previously vacant site at 10th Street and Florida Avenue. The owner is Sarasota Bayside Phase II LLC, with a mailing address through The Allen Morris Company in Coral Gables.

Bayside North will include 96 rental residences, eight furnished guest suites and 15 workforce housing units. The residences will range from one to three bedrooms and average 1,204 square feet. The furnished guest suites will average 923 square feet.

Larry Cardinal, director of investments at Allen Morris Co. and development manager for the project, says construction is expected to begin June 1, with the first units targeted for opening around the end of 2027. The first Bayside phase, a 254-unit rental building, is under construction and has a first-unit opening target of April 2027.

But “in a lot of ways, they’ll function and work like one building,” Cardinal says.

Residents of both phases will have access to the pool and amenity areas, with the two buildings connected by what Cardinal described as a sky bridge. The project will also share one central parking garage. Allen Morris refers to the first phase as Bayside and the second as Bayside North.

The same developers and owners are behind both phases, Cardinal says. The locally based Longboat Group, which partnered on the first phase, is also a partner on Bayside North and is expected to manage both properties.

Bayside North will differ from the first phase in scale and unit mix. The new building will rise seven stories, giving it additional height within the Rosemary District and west-facing views toward Sarasota Bay. Its residences will also be larger on average than those in the first phase, which Cardinal says averages about 1,100 square feet.

Both products are luxury offerings. “This one’s just a little bit turned up, with bigger units and better views," Cardinal says.

The site is zoned "downtown edge" and within the Rosemary Residential Overlay District, a section of the city where density rules have shaped much of the recent construction. Cardinal says the project used the city’s attainable housing density bonus, with 15 percent of the building set aside as affordable units.

That increased the project’s allowable density from a base of about 40 units per acre to 100 units per acre, Cardinal says. On a site just under an acre, that makes the 96-unit plan possible.

The additional height came through a different mechanism, Cardinal says: public space. Bayside North will include a roughly 2,000-square-foot public courtyard facing Florida Avenue, next to the restaurant entrance. That open space helped the project qualify for seven stories.

The 15 workforce units will include six one-bedroom units averaging 725 square feet, six two-bedroom units averaging 1,029 square feet and three three-bedroom units averaging 1,390 square feet. The affordable units will be divided among income levels at 80 percent, 100 percent and 120 percent of area median income.

The market-rate unit mix includes 23 one-bedroom units averaging 911 square feet, 22 two-bedroom units averaging 1,421 square feet and four three-bedroom units averaging 2,228 square feet. The top two floors will have penthouse finishes, Cardinal says, with 32 penthouse-designated units: 16 one-bedrooms, 13 two-bedrooms and three three-bedrooms.

Bayside North’s eight furnished guest suites are intended as shorter-term rental options, with three one-bedroom suites and five two-bedroom suites. Cardinal says they will be designed for renters seeking flexible lease terms, such as three to six months, with utilities and other costs folded into a single charge.

“We’ve seen it across all of our markets,” Cardinal says of the shorter-term furnished model. He points to remote work, mobility and the appeal of flexibility as factors driving demand. “People are willing to pay for flexibility.”

Market-rate rents are expected to begin around $3,000 for one-bedroom units and reach closer to $7,500 for three-bedroom units, though Cardinal says final pricing will depend on the market closer to opening.

“We are definitely targeting people who want to pay for luxuries and great amenities and a great experience,” he says.

The building’s amenities will include a top-floor clubhouse, or sky lounge, with west-facing views toward the bay. There will also be an open-air lounge area with seating, planters, wood ceiling treatment, glass railings and a view west toward the water. 

The ground floor will also include a 3,000-square-foot restaurant. Cardinal says Allen Morris is speaking with a restaurant operator but is not ready to identify the tenant. The restaurant is intended to be more formal than the cafe space planned for the first phase. For the Bayside North restaurant, Cardinal says the company wants a sit-down concept with a full menu.

“Ideally, we bring in a local restaurateur to activate that space,” he says. “We want to keep it Sarasota.”

Both the cafe in the first phase and the restaurant in Bayside North will be open to the public. No other retail is planned for the ground floor of Bayside North, Cardinal says. The building will also have a ground-floor pickleball court for residents.

The project is rising into a changing pocket of the city. Just north of Bayside North, across 10th Street, Aspire on 10th is leasing at 1313 10th St. That project, from The Garrett Co., is composed of 157 apartments, with studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Its floor plans range from 573 to 1,520 square feet, with advertised rents ranging from $1,771 to $5,862. 

Together, the two projects show how the northern edge of the Rosemary District is beginning to fill in. 

They also arrive at a complicated moment for Sarasota’s apartment market. The city is still expensive by national standards, but the recent building wave has given renters more leverage. Apartments.com put Sarasota’s average rent at $1,743 in June, about 6 percent above the national average, with studios averaging $1,309, one-bedrooms averaging $1,743, two-bedrooms averaging $2,118 and three-bedrooms averaging $2,702.

A separate Apartments.com analysis found that Sarasota had a 17.4 percent vacancy rate in early 2026, with one-bedroom rents down 2.9 percent year over year and two months of free rent the most common concession. The same report said more than 80 percent of Sarasota properties were offering some type of rent concession, a sign of how sharply the market has shifted as new supply has opened, and in bound migration has slowed. 

CoStar also reported in January that Sarasota entered 2026 with its highest multifamily vacancy rate since the company began tracking the market in 2000.

That doesn’t necessarily mean developers are retreating from downtown Sarasota. It does mean new projects are entering a more selective market, where renters have more choices and landlords have to work harder to fill buildings. 

Allen Morris Co. is making its first move into Sarasota with the Bayside project. Cardinal says the company was drawn to Sarasota’s demographics and to the Rosemary District’s growth, especially as development pressure extend from downtown and the bayfront.

“For us to be able to jump into Sarasota and seeing all the good tailwinds, it just felt like a no-brainer,” Cardinal says.

Bayside North also marks another sign of how much luxury rental development has moved into and around downtown Sarasota. The project sits in an area that, until the recent wave of construction, contained large stretches of underused land, surface parking and low-rise commercial parcels. Now, developers are testing how far the market will stretch for rentals with views, large units, hotel-style amenities, restaurants and short-term furnished options.

Cardinal says Allen Morris is focused on delivering the Bayside project before looking to future Sarasota opportunities, but he does not rule out more.

“We’re always optimistic about that,” he says. “The business plan is to put all of our focus and attention on delivering this project and seeing it through to success, and then eyes up for the next project after that.”