For more than a year, a proposed 18-story, glass-and-concrete tower in Sarasota moved through the city’s review process as a residential development that would bring nearly 300 condo units to a modest lot downtown. That’s four times more than city codes would normally allow.
In exchange for the extra density, the developers promised 40 of those units would be below market-rate. It was a trade-off that city officials and early supporters of the project believed would add much-needed, affordable housing to the city’s urban core.
Then the marketing materials appeared…