It is more challenging to build a mansion on the waterfront.

Perrone's three-story project on Bird Key had to be squeezed onto the available lot.

I remember when someone bought the place across the street from my girlfriend's (at the time) parents house, knocked it down, and built and an 11,000 sf home. You could barely walk around it...no lawn at at all. Most of the desirable places were taken long ago, so if you want to build a house, you have to buy a house to plow.

With the economy on the rise why would I want to downsize to 11000 sq ft now?

Building McMansions on Bird Key is just asking for trouble. Most of the "land" is dredged up from Sarasota Bay and dropped behind some pretty flimsy looking seawalls. One class five hurricane and most of the place is going to be gone.

Don't believe me? Two words: Midnight Pass. There was a big ass hurricane that made landfall on Siesta Key at midnight back in the 1920s. Survey of the area the next morning showed it had cut a deep, 70' channel right through the island. Yeah. It cut Siesta Key in farking half. It's been allowed to silt shut in the past few years, but...

/grew up in Sarasota in the Sixties
//Siesta Key still has the best beaches ever.