What They Say
About Casey Key
Paradise’s delicate strand
(By Dorothy Stockbridge--reprinted from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
Fragile, seven-mile-long Casey Key attracts wealthy owners in search of privacy, water views, and the chance to walk barefoot on a deserted stretch of south Sarasota County beach. 
"Once you cross the bridge, it feels remote, with no highrises or commercial development. But you can still run to the bank or grocery store," said Realtor Tom Stone of Michael Saunders & Company. 
In 1993, Stone brought in the buyer for the most expensive home sale ever in Sarasota County -- $5.75 million on Annette Ayers’ listing. Sarasota County’s last three $2 million sales were on Casey Key, and Stone was involved in all three. Casey Key sales in the first nine weeks of 1997 totaled about $15 million, compared to $20 million for all of 1996. Five of the 11 home sales were for more than $1 million. Actually, $1 million was the average sale price in 1997, compared to $834,000 in 1996. 
Stone predicted that 1997 would be a record year, with activity up, inventory of available homes down, and average prices up. Baby Boomers buying second homes are a factor, he said. 
  "They simply want privacy, good beach and a natural setting. The small island feel is what distinguishes Casey Key and northern Manasota Key from Siesta and Longboat Keys." 
 
Nancy Moore of Shaw Johnson doesn’t know what will become of her $1.75 million listing of the 1928 Mediterranean Revival Gulf-to-bay home at 3204 Casey Key Road that belonged to Olivia Beattie for so many years. It was built by Mrs. Marian MacAdow, a horticulturalist who designed the home, cast the decorative roof-line frieze and started the extensive gardens while the house was being built. Materials had to be barged to the site. 
Beattie, its second owner, lived in the home from 1951 until her death at the age of 90 last summer. She tended the gardens almost to the end. The show place gardens are still intact and the house has a new coat of paint but hasn’t been updated. 
"It has a lot of character. People hope it won’t be torn down," said Moore. "It would appeal to someone very involved in gardening and history. In the Northeast it would be snapped up." 
Much of the price is for the two acres of land, part of which could be split off for another home. Exotic ponds and gardens overlook Blackburn Bay. There’s a dock on the bay. The living room, with its ornate beams and colorfully tiled fireplace, opens to a sunroom. Two of the three bedrooms have detailed tile fireplaces. 
Moore acknowledged that most buyers want something large and glamorous that is ready to move into. Buyers, she said, are mostly second-home buyers, but they are younger than in the past because they can keep in touch with their business by computer and fax and even commute to the office once a week or so. Federal Express makes many deliveries to Casey Key, Johnson added. 
Ayers said that her $1.6 million listing at 316 N. Casey Key Road, also on two Gulf-to-Bay acres, has the high ceilings and large rooms with walls of glass that buyers want. The 2,915-square-foot art deco main house has a 48-foot by 20-foot great room, and there’s a two-bedroom guest house and four-car garage. The dock on deep water has room for several boats. 
Ayers $2.2 million listing on North Casey Key is under contract. The Mediterranean home was completed in 1993 and is completely walled. It has a tiled courtyard with black Marcite pool. 
Stone has the most expensive listing on the key: $3.3 million (now reduced to $2.95 million) for a beachfront estate at 1588 N. Casey Key Road in the Palmer Point section. Recent sales in that are have gone for more than $10,000 per front foot of Gulf frontage. Residents have recently installed a new road base of soil-cement. The property is 150 feet wide and stretches from the Gulf to a county preserve. The 6,000-square-foot main residence and 1,400-square-foot guest house and have never been occupied. 
He is showing a new home on a bayfront peninsula at 1220 Casey Key Road, listed at $1,295,000. Essentially complete, the home has more than 4,000 square feet of living area plus 2,000 square feet of porches and decks. It features a metal roof, cedar-shake siding, paver driveway and pool deck, elevator, Pella windows and sliders. It has a dock and beach easement. 
"It’s a hot market on Casey Key," said Stone. "The inventory is down from last year – low enough that the prices will move up again. It comes down to supply and demand." 
Will the Beattie house go for a teardown? Stone doesn’t think so. 
 

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Information provided herein is from sources deemed reliable, but it is not guaranteed. Opinions expressed are those of Thomas E. Stone, Broker-Associate with Michael Saunders & Company, and not necessarily those of the company.