City of Sarasota Resolution
... NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF SARASOTA, FLORIDA: Section 1. That the City of Sarasota, Florida does hereby adopt the TF 2-504 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the United States Army. Section 2. That a copy of this resolution shall be provided to Captain Daniel Ro ...
... NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF SARASOTA, FLORIDA: Section 1. That the City of Sarasota, Florida does hereby adopt the TF 2-504 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the United States Army. Section 2. That a copy of this resolution shall be provided to Captain Daniel Ro ...
Friends of Seagate Inc.
Friends of Seagate Inc. was founded in the late 1980s by Kafi Benz as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that is based in Sarasota, Florida in the United States. The organization was founded to champion the preservation of the remaining portions of the large platted subdivision, Seagate, that became the estate of Gwendolyn and Powel Crosley in 1929, was sold to the Horton family in 1947, and was purchased in the late 1970s for development into a club-based condominium project by the Campeau Corporation. Unfortunately the condominium market in Florida collapsed shortly afterward and the ambitious plans to use the 1929 home and auxiliary buildings as the clubhouse and headquarters of the development were never realized. Work permits were kept alive by intermittent, but unrelated and minimal construction until the corporation began to collapse. That collapse led to the demise of many of the most prestigious department stores in America, such as Bonwit Teller, having been acquired by the failing Federated Department Stores division that had become part of Campeau.The Seagate property changed hands several times with several inglorious plans submitted for redevelopment that met with opposition until Friends of Seagate was founded and a campaign for acquisition was begun that resulted finally, in public acquisition. In 1990 the property was acquired by the state of Florida with a division into two portions, the bay front residence and 16 acres (65,000 m2) being overseen by Manatee County and the much larger, eastern portion of the property along Tamiami Trail being overseen by New College and University of South Florida until their separation and the resulting development of this portion into a new campus only for the satellite, commuter campus of the university.Following public acquisition of the Seagate property, the objectives of the organization were expanded to broader community development, conservation, and preservation issues involving other archaeological, artistic, cultural, built and natural environmental, and historical concerns. Lake Underwood, acting as a patron to Friends of Seagate, provided much of the funding and equipment for the expansion of the organization.In 2002, Friends of ""Seagate"" Inc. partnered as the nonprofit environmental entity to hold the land with the Sarasota municipal government as the eligible local governmental entity, to apply for a state grant for funding through the Florida Forever Program, (Florida's premier conservation and recreation lands acquisition program) amounting to $1,505,625 for acquisition of Rus In Ur'be, a large land parcel in the center of the Indian Beach Sapphire Shores neighborhood, as a neighborhood park. The parcel, over 11 acres (45,000 m2) and containing a great deal of wooded and undeveloped land, wetlands, a tennis court, and a Sarasota School of Architecture structure that served as a private clubhouse or recreational lounge for a bay front home opposite it on Bay Shore Road that was sold separately from the house and held for a long time by a developer. The clubhouse was roofed with glazed blue Japanese ceramic tiles, used pecky cypress timbers for framing, and had expansive glass partitions along the western elevation, facing the tennis courts. The project retained its status among those not able to be included for funding in that cycle, but was sold for private development before the next cycle began. The structure was demolished and the tennis courts destroyed, plats for development with single family homes were surveyed, and a private road paved through the parcel, but no structures were built prior to the downturn of the real estate market as the speculation boom of the 1990s and 2000s collapsed. Several development projects have been proposed for the parcel. The property remains undeveloped and often is identified as a likely location for a neighborhood park.