For more than a decade, an undeveloped stretch of Fruitville Road lingered in dispute as Mark Vengroff and his father, Harvey, tried to advance a plan that never found traction.
“It’s been 12 years in the making,” Vengroff says. “My father wanted 400 apartments that were truly workforce, and it didn’t seem like the city had the temperament to do this at that time. Commissions and situations change, and the city needs the housing more than ever.”
That long-stalled idea—once sidelined by disagreements and shifting city politics—has now re-emerged under a very different landscape. Sarasota Station, a redevelopment on a portion of the 7.88-acre site at 2211 Fruitville Road and 300 Audubon Place, has been granted Administrative Site Plan approval by the City of Sarasota. Vengroff says One Stop Housing sold roughly three acres on the frontage to David Weekley Homes, which plans approximately 70 townhomes on that portion, and will develop the remaining acreage with 202 affordable apartments…