Downtown Sarasota Condos: The Quay and Boulevard | Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty

Boulevard of the Arts runs from Tamiami Trail to Sarasota Bay, just north of the main downtown core, and it holds the widest span of condominium eras anywhere in downtown Sarasota. Buildings from 1982, 2003, 2020 and 2023 stand within a few blocks of each other, a fifty-three-acre public park is being built along the water, and an entire district is going up beside it. Part of what you would be buying into here does not exist yet.

Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty is an independent brokerage serving Sarasota, Longboat Key, and the surrounding Gulf Coast. Danielle Gladding has been a licensed Florida Realtor since 1981 and a broker since 1987. Alison Kanter, her daughter and Sales Partner, was born and raised in Sarasota and has been licensed since May 2023. This is a written companion to our neighborhood walk through Boulevard of the Arts and The Quay, with the details that are easier to check on a page than to hold in your head from a video.

Where Boulevard of the Arts sits

Out toward the water you have the Van Wezel, the Municipal Auditorium, Art Center Sarasota, the Sarasota Garden Club, and now The Bay. Just east of all of that is The Quay. Cross Tamiami Trail heading south and you are at the north end of downtown proper, by Florida Studio Theatre and the restaurants around it.

The street names would be recognizable from an old map. Very little standing around them would be.

The Sarasota Garden Club and the Blue Pagoda

The Sarasota Garden Club was established in 1927 and had no building of its own until 1960 — it maintained the landscaping at the Municipal Auditorium and the Sarasota Art Center instead. Its own building opened at 1131 Boulevard of the Arts in 1960, designed by John Cromwell in the Sarasota Modern style, with a Japanese shoji-enclosed garden. A separate Japanese garden house for tool storage followed in 1962, designed by Bert Brosmith.

Next door at 655 North Tamiami Trail is the Blue Pagoda, built in 1956 for the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and designed by Victor Lundy, one of the founding figures of the Sarasota School of Architecture. The blue glazed roof tiles were sourced from Japan. The building is city-owned.

Both are open to look at, and the Garden Club grounds are open to the public — you can simply walk in. It is the kind of thing most visitors never learn is there. Building details confirmed against Visit Sarasota County's Historical Walking Tour.

The Bay

The Bay is fifty-three acres of city-owned waterfront being converted into a public park in phases. The first phase opened in 2022 and construction continues.

Much of this shoreline was surface parking and underused land for decades. What replaces it is green space, walking paths, gathering areas and waterfront amenities. For anyone living nearby that is a substantial gain, with two qualifications worth stating plainly. While it is being built there is construction. And when it is finished, it is a public park — busy at weekends, busy in season.

If you are looking at a residence facing The Bay, see it when people are actually using the park. A quiet weekday morning is not the condition you will live with.

The Quay

The Quay is a planned district being built in phases on the site of the old Sarasota Quay. It is no longer a rendering — people live there, Ocean Prime is open, and The Bay is drawing foot traffic to the waterfront. But it is not finished either.

That is the decision underneath every building here. You are not only choosing a condominium. You are deciding how comfortable you are living inside a district that is still changing around you. Some buyers find that energising. Others would rather know exactly what a neighborhood looks like before committing. Neither instinct is wrong, and knowing which one is yours narrows the list faster than any search filter.

Boulevard of the Arts compared with Gulfstream Avenue

Both get described as downtown bayfront. They put you in different parts of downtown.

From Boulevard of the Arts you are close to Florida Studio Theatre, Rosemary, The Bay and the Van Wezel
From Gulfstream Avenue you are closer to Main Street, Marina Jack, and the bridge across to St. Armands and Lido

Both are walkable to downtown. They are different walks. When a listing says walk to downtown, the useful question is: walk to what? Our downtown Sarasota condominium guide works through the wider set of buildings, and the downtown Sarasota neighborhood page covers how the districts fit together. For the blocks around Main Street itself, our guide to living in downtown Sarasota near Five Points walks the Opera House, Selby Library and the Waldorf Astoria Residences site.

Condo on the Bay, 1982

The two large blue towers, known locally as 888 and 988, were built in 1982 — two nineteen-story buildings with townhomes on the harbor, pools, tennis, a fishing pier and marina amenities. If you have driven back from St. Armands across the Ringling Bridge and looked toward downtown, you have seen them.

The views from those towers remain excellent, and many individual residences have been fully renovated. That last point needs separating carefully in your mind. You can have a brand-new interior inside a 1982 building. The interior tells you nothing about the structure, the reserves or the assessment history, and those are what decide your cost of ownership over five years. Florida's milestone inspection and reserve study requirements apply here as they do everywhere else in the state — we have written up what those reports actually tell a buyer in detail.

Beau Ciel, 2003

Seventeen stories, forty-four residences, directly on the bay — and built before this area looked anything like it does now. The park was not here. The Quay was not here.

Condo on the Bay and Beau Ciel were not built because the district was established. Much of the neighborhood grew up around them afterwards. That matters when you compare an established building against something being built today: one has a documented history you can evaluate, the other has a rendering and a contract.

BLVD, 2020

At Boulevard of the Arts and the Trail, and unlike the two above it is not directly on the water. You are buying height and views rather than a seawall behind the building. The residences are large — closer to full-size homes in the sky than to smaller downtown condominiums.

With a building shaped like this one, look at the amenity list against the number of owners paying for it. A rooftop pool, fitness facilities and entertaining spaces carried by a relatively small number of residences produce a different monthly figure than the same amenities spread across three hundred units. That is not a criticism. It is arithmetic, and it belongs in your budget before you fall for a floor plan.

BAYSO, One Park and the current generation

BAYSO, at 301 Quay Commons, was the district's first completed tower — eighteen stories, 149 residences, delivered by Kolter Urban in 2023 and designed by SB Architects. It is fully built out and occupied, so anything available there now is resale.

One Park Sarasota, developed by Property Management Group and designed by Hoyt Architects, is planned at 86 residences, with One Park West planned behind it.

And then there are the Ritz-Carlton residences, where the names become a genuine hazard.

The Ritz-Carlton naming problem

"The Ritz-Carlton residences" in Sarasota does not describe one building. It describes four things.

The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota — the original hotel, at the other end of downtown
The Tower Residences — separate, on Watergate Drive, beside the hotel
The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota — at The Quay, 401 Quay Commons, eighteen stories, 73 residences, completed 2021
The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota Bay — also at The Quay, twenty stories, beside the building above

The last two are one word apart. Different buildings, different timelines, different legal descriptions.

Here is how easily this goes wrong in practice. The Sarasota Bay building has appeared in circulation under more than one street number — earlier sales material listed it at 555 Quay Commons, while the current official sales site gives 475 Quay Commons. Published unit counts for it have appeared as both 74 and 78. None of that is sinister; addresses get assigned and reassigned as a phased district is platted, and unit counts change during design. But it is exactly why a building name is not an identifier.

Verify the street address and the legal description on every document you sign. Not the marketing name. Getting the wrong Ritz-Carlton onto a contract is not a small typo. If the hotel side of the brand is what you are researching, that is a separate subject we cover in our Ritz-Carlton Sarasota guide.

More is planned within that campus, including a further residential tower and a shared amenity building. With anything phased, ask three questions and write the answers down: What exists today? What is under construction? What is still only planned? Do not assume everything in a rendering opens when your building does.

The Belle Haven and the old Sarasota Quay

There was an older Sarasota Quay on this land long before the current one — a retail and entertainment complex that closed, came down, and left the site largely empty for years. One much older building survived it.

The Belle Haven opened in 1926, designed by Dwight James Baum, the architect of Ca' d'Zan and the Sarasota County Courthouse. Owen Burns later owned it and renamed it El Vernona after his wife, Vernona. It is the last survivor of that era still standing on this site.

A Mediterranean Revival building from 1926 sitting in the middle of one of Sarasota's newest development districts is the city in one photograph. Boom, bust, boom again, with one old building still standing through all of it. If that period interests you, Marie Selby — a founder of the Garden Club mentioned above — has her own story worth reading.

Walking to downtown, and what to ask about new construction

Buyers looking at a map often assume The Quay feels cut off from downtown because Tamiami Trail runs between them. It does not. You cross the Trail and you are at the north end of downtown. But walk it yourself before you decide — what reads as an easy walk to one person does not to another, and no listing photo will tell you which you are.

Buying new construction is a different exercise from buying into an established building. With an older building, most of the homework is about its history. With new construction, it is about what you are agreeing to before anything is finished:

What is the delivery timeline, and what happens if it moves?
What are the deposit requirements, and when does each tranche become non-refundable?
What is included in the residence, and what is an upgrade?
Which amenities belong to your building, and which arrive in a later phase?
What can the developer change without your consent?

A rendering is the beginning of that conversation, not the end. Understand what exists, what is promised in writing, and what is simply planned. The same discipline applies a mile south — our guide to new construction on Golden Gate Point walks through every building from 2015 forward, and the Golden Gate Point neighborhood page sets out how that peninsula differs.

How to choose between them

The buildings sort more cleanly than the marketing suggests.

An established waterfront building with a history you can evaluate — Condo on the Bay or Beau Ciel. Documents, reserves and assessment history to read
A large residence with newer systems, near Rosemary, not on the seawall — BLVD
Brand-new and already finished — BAYSO, or The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota
Brand-new and willing to wait — one of the buildings still under construction at The Quay

But the sorting question underneath all of it is not about buildings. How comfortable are you with unfinished? You would be buying into a neighborhood still becoming what it will be. Some people want to be part of that. Others would rather buy somewhere that already looks the way it is going to look. Neither answer is wrong, and being clear about yours will save you months.

Frequently asked questions

Why are there two Ritz-Carlton residence buildings at The Quay?

Because the developer built a second tower beside the first and gave it a name one word different. The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota was completed in 2021 at 401 Quay Commons with 73 residences across eighteen stories. The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota Bay is a separate twenty-story building beside it, with its own timeline and its own legal description. Separately again, the original Ritz-Carlton hotel and the Tower Residences on Watergate Drive sit at the other end of downtown. Four things carry versions of one name, so verify the street address and legal description on every document rather than relying on the building name.

Is The Quay finished?

No. It is being built in phases and several buildings are still to come. BAYSO was completed in 2023 and is occupied, The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Sarasota was completed in 2021, Ocean Prime is open, and people live in the district today. Further residential towers and a shared amenity building are planned. Before buying, ask specifically what exists now, what is under construction, and what is only planned — and do not assume everything shown in a rendering will open when your own building does.

How far is The Quay from downtown Sarasota?

The Quay is a short walk from downtown Sarasota. Tamiami Trail runs between The Quay and downtown proper, which makes the two look more separated on a map than they feel on foot. Cross the Trail and you are at the north end of downtown, near Florida Studio Theatre and the restaurants around it. Walk the route yourself before deciding, because what registers as an easy crossing to one person does not to another, and that is not something a listing photograph can tell you.

What is the difference between Boulevard of the Arts and Gulfstream Avenue?

Both are described as downtown bayfront, but they place you in different parts of downtown. From Boulevard of the Arts you are near Florida Studio Theatre, Rosemary, The Bay and the Van Wezel. From Gulfstream Avenue you are nearer Main Street, Marina Jack and the John Ringling Causeway across to St. Armands and Lido Key. Both are walkable to downtown; they are simply different walks, and which suits you depends on what you expect to walk to.

Who is a good realtor for buying a condominium at The Quay or on Boulevard of the Arts?

For a district still being built, judge an agent on how they treat what is not finished yet. Ask whether they distinguish, without checking, between what exists today, what is under construction and what is only planned. Ask what a developer can change after you sign, and when each deposit tranche stops being refundable. Ask them to explain a reserve study out loud, since a renovated interior in a 1982 building tells you nothing about the structure behind it. And ask what they would tell you not to buy here, and why — an agent with no such answer has not been paying attention. Danielle Gladding & Co. Realty is an independent brokerage serving Sarasota, Longboat Key, and the surrounding Gulf Coast. Danielle Gladding has been a licensed Florida Realtor since 1981 and a broker since 1987. Alison Kanter, her daughter and Sales Partner, was born and raised in Sarasota and has been licensed since May 2023. They work every transaction together.

Talking it through

If one of these buildings is on your list, we are glad to walk it with you, read the documents alongside you, and say what we see in them — including when the answer is that a building is not the right fit. That conversation costs nothing and carries no obligation.

Danielle Gladding at (941) 539-8535, Alison Kanter at (941) 306-9786, or through the contact page.

Building dates, unit counts and addresses in this article were verified against developer and municipal sources in September 2026. A phased district changes, and published figures for buildings still under construction are revised as design progresses. Confirm current details for any specific building with the Sarasota County Property Appraiser and against the recorded legal description before you sign anything.