The three-day stays Saravela pitches to condo owners are not allowed, according to city staff.
By Derek Gilliam/Suncoast Searchlight
Original Air Date: January 28, 2026
Host: A downtown project that’s under review by the city has begun advertising for three day rentals that city staff have said are not allowed. Derek Gilliam of Suncoast Searchlight has the story.
Derek Gilliam: 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 is 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.
Saravela’s website advertises its onsite rental management program for condo owners to rent out their units for short-term stays. Screen grab from Saravela.com via Suncoast Searchlight
Billing itself as “the first new luxury high-rise residences in downtown Sarasota with three-day minimum rental freedom,” Saravela promotes an onsite rental program to help owners offer their units for short-term stays—a detail that had not been disclosed to city officials during the project’s review.
One time supporters began emailing city officials about the advertising resulting in staff requesting the developer to remove the ads or change the project.
Although Saravela received partial approval from the city’s Development Review Committee in July, the project cannot move forward to apply for a building permit without approval from Development Services Director Lucia Panica. That approval has not been granted.
This rendering of Saravela, a luxury condominium project located in the Rosemary District, has been used in marketing materials by the project’s developer. Courtesy of GSP Development via Suncoast Searchlight
Under the city’s review process, projects that fail to address staff or committee concerns are not formally denied but instead are returned with additional comments. That cycle can continue indefinitely, leaving projects stalled.
The controversy comes amid a deepening affordable housing crisis in Sarasota, where the demand for lower-cost units far exceeds supply. Since 2019, the number of rental units below $1,000 a month has fallen by more than half, while those renting for more than $2,000 have more than quadrupled, according to a recent report funded by the area’s largest philanthropic foundations.
Locally and nationwide, housing researchers and policymakers have also raised concerns about the growth of short-term rentals and investor-owned properties, warning that converting homes into transient lodging can further tighten housing markets and raise rents.
The city’s bonus density policy was seen as a way to chip away at that problem. Passed in late 2022, it allows developers to quadruple the number of units they can build in exchange for providing “attainable” housing in the urban core.
Saravela is one of the latest projects to take advantage of that policy.
Pitched by Illinois-based GSP Development, the tower is slated to rise on the corner of Tamiami Trail and 4th Street in the Rosemary District, a residential area that consists of both condo towers and older, single-family homes. With the bonus density, it can fit 282 units on the 1.7-acre site—without the designation, just 85 units would have been allowed.
The proposed 18-story condo will be located at the corner of Tamiami Trail and 4th Street in downtown Sarasota. Sarasota County Property Appraiser’s GIS map via Suncoast Searchlight
City officials have publicly downplayed the issue, saying the city’s rules are clear and that the project will not be allowed to operate as a short-term rental building.
Suncoast Searchlight contacted GSP Development, seeking to understand why it was marketing the building in a way the city’s codes appear to forbid, but a representative for the company declined to speak on the record about the situation.
Emails obtained by Suncoast Searchlight suggest at least one potential source of confusion over the issue, which emerged months after the project received partial approval.
An attorney representing Saravela requested that city staff confirm its zoning codes.
The city’s response was short and to the point. Short-term rentals were allowed but had to be for seven full days.
However, the next line in the city’s response may have caused some confusion.
In exchange for the extra density, the developers promised 40 of the units inside Saravela, pictured here in a rendering, would be below market-rate. Courtesy of Saravela Courtesy GSP Development via Suncoast Searchlight
“Short-term and long-term rentals within condominiums are not subject to the City’s Vacation Rental Ordinance,” the response stated.
The city followed up by restating that seven days would qualify as transient lodging—equivalent in the city’s eyes as hotel or motel use—and that such units would need to be separated from the building’s residential units.
By mid-December, word spread about Saravela’s “unique” business model allowing three-day rentals in downtown Sarasota, leading to once strong supporters of the project caught off guard and ultimately Panica’s emails to city commissioners attempting to clarify the situation.
On Thursday, the developers’ representatives met with members of the city’s Development Services Department to discuss the situation. Afterward, Jan Thornburg, city communications general manager, told Suncoast Searchlight that the developers are working on a site plan resubmittal.
The advertisements for three-day rentals on Saravela’s website continue.
For Suncoast Searchlight, I’m Derek Gilliam. Read more at suncoastsearchlight.org/saravela-sarasota-downtown-affordable-housing-three-day-rental.
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