The practical mind looks at the square footage sprawl at 3990 Higel Ave. and wonders who cleans it. The child’s mind sees seven bedrooms and a guest house and starts planning the longest game of hide-and-seek in Siesta Key history. The working-class mind has a more pressing question: Who paid $26 million in cash for the place?

That last answer will have to wait. The buyer hasn’t been identified, and county property records haven’t yet caught up with the transaction.

The newly built Gulf-front estate closed today for $26 million, the largest Sarasota-area residential sale reported so far this year. It had been listed for $29,995,000, putting the final price $3,995,000 below ask.

The seller was the Charles Lomangino 2018 Irrevocable Trust. Lomangino bought the property for $3.9 million in January 2021, when it was marketed as a vacant Gulf-front lot under the address 3975 Shell Road, South Lot. He built the home that now bears the 3990 Higel Ave. address. 

Lomangino made his career in the waste and recycling business. He founded Fort Myers-based Southwest Waste Services in 2021 and served as its CEO before the company merged with Boca Raton-based Coastal Waste & Recycling in 2024. When we spoke with him in 2025, he was Coastal’s president. He’d planned to make the Siesta Key house his primary residence, but the merger took him to Boca Raton and changed his plans.

“We wanted to make it a destination,” Lomangino said. “It was really to be used as an at-home vacation spot.”

A vacation spot it is, though one that requires considerably more than a weekend bag. The property covers 1.18 acres with 131 feet of Gulf frontage. It spans 13,035 square feet of heated living area and 19,130 square feet of total structure area. 

Architect Mark Sultana of DSDG Architects worked with Lomangino on the coastal contemporary design. Nutter Construction built the house, and Angela Rodriguez Interiors designed its interiors. From the driveway, the residence presents a broad two-story facade, a patterned motor court and a six-car garage. From the Gulf, its windows, balconies and terraces stretch across the property. Neither view suggests anyone was trying to keep a low profile.

Inside, the double-height great room has a fireplace, a balcony overlooking the space and glass doors framing the water. The kitchen opens onto it, with custom cabinetry and an oversized island. There’s also a club room with a glass opening toward the pool, a dedicated party room and a wine room—a nod to Lomangino’s interest in collecting. A guest could wander from one gathering space to another and still miss the gathering.

Five bedroom suites occupy the main residence. The primary suite spans the upstairs north wing, with sitting areas, a Gulf-view balcony and a bathroom with a soaking tub and oversized shower. The detached guest house adds two bedrooms and its own living space. In all, the property has seven bedrooms, eight full bathrooms and three half-bathrooms.

Outside, an infinity-edge pool and spa face Big Sarasota Pass, which connects to the Gulf. One covered terrace has an outdoor kitchen and seating positioned for the sunset; other terraces and balconies provide more choices for watching it. The property also has a firepit and a private, deeded boat lift rated for 20,000 pounds. The water frontage, in other words, is available for both looking at and heading out onto.

The scale of the Higel Avenue home has company on Siesta Key. A new residence planned nearby at 4050 Higel Ave. has been listed for $25 million. The island’s luxury construction boom began before hurricanes Helene and Milton hit in 2024; the storms have since made the condition of older homes and the question of rebuilding harder to ignore. 

Lomangino has sold a newer Siesta Key home before. He and Lauren Lomangino, acting as trustees, sold a house on Siesta Cove Drive for $5 million last year. The Higel Avenue estate operates on a rather different scale, even by the island’s increasingly expensive standards.

While some island businesses close after carrying the strain of a slow, sticky summer, and would-be visitors keep one eye on the hurricane forecast before booking a rental, Siesta Key’s luxury buyers seem to be keeping a different calendar.

It’s been a banger month for luxury sales, even though September is typically quiet. The Higel Avenue closing comes less than two weeks after Crystal Waters, a separate Siesta Key estate at 8501 Midnight Pass Road, sold for $21.95 million. Sarasota County’s residential sale record remains the $30.3 million Longboat Key transaction of the home called, Serenissima, recorded in July 2025.

The buyer’s name will emerge when the deed is recorded. Until then, there’s plenty else to contemplate—chiefly whether a guest could leave a sweater in the far wing and decide it’s easier to buy another one.

The seller’s agent in this transaction was Adnan Dedic, of Compass Florida; the buyer’s agent was Angela Adams, of Michael Saunders & Company.