Welcome, Neighbor

In the booming early 1920s, colorful characters such as circus impresario John Ringling and socialite Bertha Honore Palmer (of Chicago’s famed Palmer Hotel family) transformed the little fishing and farming village of Sarasota into a resort destination. Starting in the 1940s and continuing for several decades, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist MacKinlay Kantor, John D. MacDonald of the best-selling Travis McGee mystery novels, sculptor John Chamberlain and other celebrated intellectuals established an artists’ colony here that formed the foundation of Sarasota’s flourishing arts community. Manatee and Charlotte counties, meanwhile, developed as tranquil destinations where retirees, most of them Midwesterners, could enjoy fishing, boating and other outdoor pursuits.

Times have certainly changed in the 100 years since realtor A.B. Edwards showed properties to newcomers in his horse and buggy. Today, the region is welcoming a flood of new residents drawn here from all over the country and even abroad by the natural beauty of its beaches and public parks; a wealth of arts and cultural offerings, including our own opera, symphony and ballet companies and an internationally renowned botanical garden; great shopping; and first-rate educational and medical facilities.

Why do newcomers flock to our tri-county area? Take a look at some of its most notable neighborhoods and you’ll see.

SARASOTA COUNTY
AT A GLANCE

LAND AREA: 620 square miles

PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2006): 647.1

POPULATION (2006 ESTIMATE): 369,535

POPULATION INCREASE (2000-2006): 13.4 percent

COLLEGE GRADUATES: 20.4 percent

MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 21.8 minutes

MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME (2005): $44,023

THE BEACHES

The warm, blue-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico enchant newcomers from the cold gray North, and many prospective homebuyers look first to waterfront properties on Sarasota’s barrier islands, which locals call the keys. Waterfront properties are the area’s priciest, but real estate pros remind us that, since the supply is finite, they hold their value well.

For centuries, Longboat Key was a camping ground for Native Americans; from the late 1880s to the great hurricane of 1921, it was an agricultural center producing avocados, papaya and tomatoes. Today this 12-mile stretch of beach-to-bay resort living boasts a wealth of great homes, from the multimillion-dollar condominiums of the gated Longboat Key Club on the south end to the wooden bungalows, ranch houses, vacation rentals and low-rise condos of the north end’s laid-back Village. Gulf of Mexico Drive, which runs up the island’s spine, is lined with hot-pink oleanders and banyan trees and bordered by a popular bike and jogging trail. Realtors say Longboat Key attracts people who could live anywhere in the world, and many of the nation’s top retired executives call it their seasonal home.

St. Armands is a lovely old neighborhood of eclectic architectural styles that revolves around the world-famous shopping destination of St. Armands Circle. Beautiful Lido Beach and the circle’s terrific restaurants and upscale boutiques are just a short stroll or bike ride away. Platted in the 1920s by Sarasota’s most colorful developer, circus magnate John Ringling, St. Armands Circle retains a good bit of his razzle-dazzle. On almost any night of the week, tourists line up outside the ice cream shops, and Harley-hopping lawyers take over the corner coffeehouse. Lots of remodeling is taking place on the older canal-front homes that line the quiet, neighborly residential side streets.

You can walk to the wonderful public beach on nearby Lido Key, where a wave of new beachfront condominiums includes Orchid Beach Club and The Beach Residences, adjacent to the ultra-ritzy new Ritz-Carlton Beach Club. Nearby Lido Shores houses many modernist mansions.

Bird Key, a 510-home enclave just off the Ringling Causeway, has canal-front and bayfront homes with manicured lawns and dramatic city skyline views. Also originally owned by John Ringling, the key was the Arvida Corporation’s first big Sarasota development in the early 1960s. Bird Key is a boater’s dream, and the Bird Key Yacht Club is the hub of social life here. A mix of executives, physicians, recently retired baby boomers, at least one rock ’n’ roll superstar and a controversial national talk-show host live here, but we’re not naming names.

Home to a popular public beach that has won a “world’s whitest sand” contest, Siesta Key is the most family-oriented of the area’s barrier islands. Residential options range from multimillion-dollar waterfront mansions hidden behind private walls to mid-century modern houses to older mid-rise condominiums on the island’s south end. The heart of the key is the surfer-dude-cool Village, with its outdoor eateries, funky shops and ice cream stands. Some people swear the perfect date is a sunset beach walk followed by a daiquiri at a village watering hole.

Tucked behind sea grapes and bougainvillea, unpretentious family compounds for the rich and private once predominated on Casey Key, a quiet residential enclave on nine lush Gulf-to-bay miles. Today many of them are being replaced by monumental residences. Who’s buying? “People from the Northeast and Midwest who looked at Naples and decided this was a better buy,” says Tom Stone of Michael Saunders & Company, himself a former island resident.

To the south, 7.5-mile Manasota Key straddles Sarasota and Charlotte counties between Lemon Bay and the Gulf. Narrow Manasota Key Road, with its dense tree canopy, seems like a road into Florida’s past. Midway down the island is a jumble of historic wooden cottages now known as The Hermitage Artist Retreat. The nonprofit organization, founded by the Sarasota County Arts Council, brings artists, musicians and writers to its unspoiled beachfront campus to draw creative inspiration from the setting.

SARASOTA

Meandering along Sarasota Bay, the city of Sarasota, population 53,000, is the seat of county government, arts and culture. Its history is inextricably intertwined with John Ringling, who made Sarasota the winter headquarters of his famed Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and who built his over-the-top Italianate palazzo, C?d’Zan, on the Sarasota bayfront. Ringling also built the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art to house his priceless collection of Baroque art and willed it to the state of Florida. Today, the museum complex, owned by Florida State University, is Sarasota’s biggest tourist attraction. It recently celebrated the completion of an unprecedented $76 million renovation and expansion, making it one of the largest public art museums in the nation.

Two of the city’s oldest established bayfront neighborhoods, Indian Beach and Sapphire Shores, comprise the popular museum area. A thriving cultural district, the area also claims the FSU Center for the Performing Arts (home of the Asolo Repertory Theatre and Sarasota Ballet), New College of Florida and a branch of the University of South Florida. Tree-lined Bay Shore Road travels the length of these historic north Sarasota neighborhoods, which are filled with a mix of meticulously renovated estates and modest Craftsman-era bungalows from the turn of the last century.

From the ribbon of 1970s-era mid-rises that ring Gulfstream Avenue to the swanky Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, downtown’s condominium choices are soaring. An explosion of high-end condominium construction over the past few years yielded several new complexes: Rivo at Ringling, Alinari at Rosemary Place, 1350 Main and Broadway Promenade. On Golden Gate Point, the tiny spit of land near Bayfront Park, luxury high-rises like Grand Riviera and Le Reve Dore are pushing out the laid-back 1950s and ’60s-era two-story apartment buildings.

For those who desire downtown ambiance but like to keep both feet on the ground, downtown’s single-family neighborhoods are appealing alternatives. Laurel Park recently became a National Historic District, and young professional families and empty nesters are reviving its Craftsman bungalows and Mediterranean Revival cottages, 270 of which hail from the 1920s. Nearby Towles Court is a thriving artists’ colony with brightly painted, Florida Cracker-style cottages housing galleries and coffeehouses. A monthly gallery walk attracts hundreds of browsers. Urban frontiersmen are also turning to up-and-coming Gillespie Park, north of Fruitville Road, where old bungalows around a 10-acre park are being rehabbed. The latest planned development here is Citrus Square, a mixed-use development of condos and retail to be built on Orange Avenue between Fourth Street and Boulevard of the Arts.

OSPREY AND NOKOMIS

The once sleepy, unincorporated communities of Osprey and Nokomis, located between Sarasota and Venice, are awakening to tremendous residential and commercial growth.

Almost 100 years ago, Osprey was the winter home of Chicago socialite Bertha Palmer, wife of hotel magnate Potter Palmer. She came to Sarasota County in 1910 and snapped up tens of thousands of acres of wilderness, intent on utilizing it for cattle ranching, citrus groves and real estate development. Her bayfront estate, Osprey Point, is now being managed as Historic Spanish Point by the Gulf Coast Heritage Association. Here, the public can tour Mrs. Palmer’s water garden, sunken garden, Duchene lawn and fern and jungle walk.

Nearby Oscar Scherer State Park, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, offers 15 miles of nature trails, campgrounds and plenty of paddling opportunities on South Creek.

Until now, the elegant Oaks Country Club has been the biggest development in Osprey, but that will change when Bay Street Village & Towncenter is completed. This 45-acre community, now under construction, will include shops, offices, restaurants, a public library and 550 condominiums designed within the New Urbanist framework of live-work-shop-play.

In neighboring Nokomis, the southern gateway to Casey Key, developer Henry Rodriguez is planning a 220-acre mixed-use development along S.R. 681 that will eventually include 1,950 residences and 240,000 square feet of commercial space.

VENICE

In 1925, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), a railroad union based in Cleveland, Ohio, purchased 55,000 acres in south Sarasota County and hired renowned Boston architect and planner John Nolen to create a resort city that would lure well-off winter residents from the cold Midwest. BLE realtors courted potential buyers with everything from lobster-and-candelabra picnics on the beach to hunting expeditions in the wilds of eastern Sarasota County. It worked; by the late 1920s, charming little Venice had a winter population of several thousand.

From the start, Nolen pictured a walkable, human-scaled small city, with distinct neighborhoods all within strolling distance of a few-blocks-long shopping district along Venice Avenue. Wide, landscaped boulevards and homes built around playgrounds or parks were central to Nolen’s vision for this planned city, which was one of the nation’s first.

Today small shops and restaurants flank palm-lined Venice Avenue, and Venice Little Theatre and the Venice Art Center are the hubs of cultural life. Within walking distance of the compact downtown shopping district are 1920s-era Mediterranean Revival estates surrounded by more modest single-family homes. A few blocks west leads directly to the Gulf of Mexico and Venice Beach, a favorite spot to find sharks’ teeth. (The Venice Sharks Tooth Festival draws thousands of people each April.) Here are a mix of 1970s low-rise condominiums and newer upscale projects.

Surrounding golf course communities—and there are many—offer a wide range of suburban ranch homes and villas with vista views. Long-established Jacaranda Country Club, Plantation Golf & Country Club, Waterford Golf Club, Mission Valley Golf & Country Club, Calusa Lakes, Capri Isles and Pelican Pointe Golf & Country Club have been joined by posh newcomer Venetian Golf & River Club.

Two areas are about to boom. Some 3,000 acres in North Venice are slated for residential, commercial and industrial development in the next decade. Among them is Waterford Companies’ recently announced $320 million The Renaissance, with more than 800 residences, a 1,800-seat movie theater and 295,000 square feet of commercial-retail space. And in south Venice, construction is under way on the enormous Gran Paradiso on Thomas Ranch, a community of 1,999 homes ranging in price from the $300,000s to over $2 million.

NORTH PORT

One of Florida’s fastest-growing cities and, at 120 square miles, one of the largest in land area, North Port is beckoning families and value-conscious retirees to its affordable subdivisions and its central location close to I-75 along the Sarasota-Charlotte county line. Young homeowners, many of whom commute to work in Sarasota and Fort Myers, can still find small, older carport homes for under $200,000. And neighborhood parks, a multitude of youth programs and beautiful new schools are turning North Port into a real community.

Three major golf course communities, Bobcat Trail, Heron Creek and Sabal Trace, continue to attract active retirees from the Midwest and other Northern climes. More than 80,000 visitors, including many eastern Europeans, flock each year to the healing 87-degree waters of Warm Mineral Springs in northernmost North Port. An ambitious $50 million renovation of the resort is planned, with new condominiums, estate homes, an artists’ village and redevelopment of the springs themselves.

North Port’s explosive growth of the mid-2000s slowed precipitously last year, and developers concentrated instead on commercial projects to support all that growth. Some 1.5 million square feet of office and retail development are now under construction or being planned.

And planning for future growth doesn’t stop. Last year, a West Palm Beach developer announced plans for the Isles of Athena on 5,800 acres in northeast North Port. Preliminary plans call for 15,000 homes and a town center with restaurants, offices and shops—virtually a brand-new city within the city of North Port. Planning and permitting are at least two years away, developers say.

MANATEE COUNTY
AT A GLANCE

LAND AREA: 741 square miles

PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2006): 423

POPULATION (2006 ESTIMATE): 313,298

POPULATION INCREASE (2000-2006): 18.7 percent

COLLEGE GRADUATES: 20.8 percent

MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 23.3 minutes

MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME (2005): $41,419

BRADENTON

A spot on the scenic Manatee River in northwest Bradenton is believed to be where Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his crew of 600 first made landfall in North America, in 1539. Today, a quarter of a million visitors from around the world annually visit the De Soto National Memorial to witness the place where De Soto started his infamous 4,000-mile journey across the southeast United States.

They also visit Bradenton—Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County’s seat of government and its largest city, with a population of just over 53,000—to relax on its beautiful beaches, play on any of 21 golf courses and cheer on the Pittsburgh Pirates during spring training at old-timey McKechnie Field.

Bradenton boasts a wide variety of family-friendly subdivisions, from leafy, older neighborhoods like Palma Sola Park to the mansions of Riverview Boulevard. Buyers value the area’s good schools and houses of worship, mature landscaping and easy access to the beaches.

Big changes are afoot in downtown Bradenton, where plans have been approved for nearly 1,400 new residential units. Among them are the mixed-use Promenade at Riverwalk, rising near Rossi Riverfront Park, and Metro Marquee.

The mile-wide Manatee River is just one of many charms of the established neighborhoods surrounding downtown Bradenton. Neighborhood parks, the South Florida Museum and Bishop Planetarium (home of 58-year-old Snooty, the oldest manatee in captivity), Manatee Players Riverfront Theatre, ArtCenter Manatee, a picturesque marina and a big public library are attracting homebuyers who are snapping up older properties and investing in the future of their community by renovating them.

Also downtown, working artists have transformed five formerly rundown blocks south of Manatee Avenue into the Village of the Arts. The City of Bradenton pitched in with brick-edged sidewalks and street lighting. Now, in an area that just a few years ago was decidedly edgy, people flock to Friday evening art walks.

THE BEACHES

Follow the sunset for a trip back in time to the historic fishing village of Cortez, on the northern mainland shore of Sarasota Bay, a quick hop from the Cortez Bridge that leads to Bradenton Beach. A walking-tour map produced by the Cortez Village Historical Society takes you past the picturesque old wood cottages and fish houses of the village’s pioneering families, 92 of which are on the National Register of Historic Places. The annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival, held the third weekend in February, draws more than 20,000 visitors to hear live music, admire nautical arts and crafts and lap up steaming plates of fresh seafood.

Then hit the beach. Like the rest of Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County, the island communities of Anna Maria, Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach—all on Anna Maria Island—are in transition. There’s still a “sand in your shoes” sensibility, but they’re no longer quite so laid-back, thanks to the recent rise of upscale beachfront condominiums. A free trolley that runs the length of the seven-mile island is an excellent way to capture the communities’ essence.

The city of Anna Maria, on the island’s north end, is home to lively waterfront seafood restaurants, beguiling boutiques and a popular municipal fishing pier with a breathtaking view of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. New construction here is restricted to single-family residences. Simple beach duplexes remain, but on North Shore Drive, stunning multimillion-dollar homes line the Gulf of Mexico. Many of them are weekend retreats for people from Tampa, Lakeland and other parts of Florida. TripAdvisor.com last fall named Anna Maria its favorite vacation destination in America.

On Holmes Beach, simple 1960s-era concrete block beach cottages still predominate; they’re the kind with terrazzo floors that make fast work of sweeping out sand. Here you’ll also find Key Royale, a canal-front community of executive homes where a lot of updating is going on. Boaters especially are drawn to Key Royale’s easy access to Tampa Bay and the Gulf.

Even Bradenton Beach, perhaps the area’s funkiest beach community, is growing up. The days of the inexpensive beach bungalow are over, realtors say, giving way to sophisticated condominium communities.

LAKEWOOD RANCH AND EAST COUNTY

Explosive growth has taken place throughout eastern Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County. Nowhere is this more evident than in the master-planned community of Lakewood Ranch. In just 11 years, 6,000 homes have been built in this “live, work, learn and play” community, along with a medical center, public and private golf courses, shops, restaurants, a major commerce center where some of the area’s biggest businesses are relocating and even a polo club. Lakewood Ranch won the Southeast Builders Conference’s prestigious Grand Aurora Award for best master-planned community.

“There’s a tremendous sense of community here,” says Dave Minton of Bosshardt Realty Services, himself an early Lakewood Ranch settler. “We’ve got some 80 clubs and organizations, everything from bird watching to empty nesters to book reading to music to Rotary to whatever you can think of.”

Last fall, Lakewood Ranch developers announced they will build an additional 8,000 new homes northeast of the intersection of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and S.R. 70 over the next few years. And they recently introduced two new villages: Country Club East and The Lake Club, where 1,100 custom residences will range from $3.5 million to $8 million.

Lakewood Ranch has spurred a development boom in east Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County, and several country club communities are located nearby on S.R. 70: The River Club, Rosedale Golf and Country Club, Peridia Golf and Country Club, and Tara Golf and Country Club. Nearby, the long-established single-family neighborhoods of Braden Woods, Braden Pines and Panther Ridge offer estate homes on heavily treed sites of more than one acre. The newest community here is Neal Communities’ The Harborage on Braden River.

An ultra-posh golf resort, The Concession, has joined the mix in this fast-growing eastern part of Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County. The Concession is carved from 1,232 acres of pristine oak hammocks. Golf greats Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin designed the course; the community is named for a historic moment in the final round of the 1969 Ryder Cup, when Nicklaus conceded a two-foot putt to Jacklin, resulting in the first tie in match history. Golf Digest named it “Best New Private Course of the Year” for 2006.

The other major thoroughfare extending east and west from I-75 is S.R. 64, and along it are several significant new residential developments. The largest is Heritage Harbour, an amenity-packed, 2,500-acre master-planned community on the banks of the Manatee River. Rye Wilderness, with 280 home sites on lakes and nature preserves, is under way six miles east of I-75. It’s located near a bucolic 145-acre county park with river access. And WCI Communities’ new Tidewater Preserve, at 48th Street East, is going up; when complete, it will have 927 homes on 374 acres of riverfront property, nearly 90 acres of it preserved wetlands.

ELLENTON AND PARRISH

The biggest push for development now is north of the Manatee River. Less than a decade ago, orange groves, cattle ranches and tomato fields dominated the landscape north of the Manatee River toward the Tampa" target="_blank">Hillsborough County line. With a recent torrent of residential development, the peaceful old rural towns of Ellenton and Parrish are “busting at the seams,” as one longtime realtor put it.

Since 2001, 7,000 homes have been built in more than two dozen new developments. And that’s just for starters. No fewer than three major new communities are planned or under way: Pulte’s Harrison Ranch, with 1,077 homes; Medallion Homes’ Curiosity Creek, with 1,924 homes; and, with 2,500 homes, the largest of all, Taylor Woodrow’s Artisan Lakes.

Planners estimate the population in north Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County will jump from 50,000 to 237,000 by 2035. “It’s unbridled,” a former Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County commissioner told the local newspaper last year. “It’s just happening boom, boom, boom.”

The area’s rich history is represented by the Gamble Plantation, an antebellum mansion and headquarters of an extensive sugar plantation built by Maj. Robert Gamble. Local legend is that the Confederate Secretary of State, Judah P. Benjamin, hid out at Gamble Plantation after the fall of the Confederacy until he could be spirited away to England. Now a state-operated historic site, the mansion is open for tours and is home to the Plantation Festival, a big arts and crafts fair held each April.

PALMETTO

When Samuel Sparks Lamb arrived by boat on the north shore of the Manatee River in 1866, he purchased considerable land holdings in what was to become the city of Palmetto, and named the new community after his home state of South Carolina, the Palmetto State. Wide, palm-lined streets and gracious old homes set amid moss-draped oaks still characterize the town, but to stereotype Palmetto as a sleepy Southern village would be a monumental error.

That’s because Sarasota" target="_blank">Manatee County’s second-largest city, population 13,106, has more than 4,200 new homes in planning or development. In the heart of the small city, not long ago known more for its tomato packing plants, the tiny downtown district is being revitalized. There’s a lot of renovating of older homes, many of them from the turn of the last century, especially along scenic Riverside Drive. The private Bradenton Yacht Club and the Regatta Pointe Marina are boaters’ meccas.

On quiet Snead Island, outdoor lovers flock to 195-acre Emerson Point Park, with nature trails, canoe launches and panoramic views of Tampa Bay and the Sunshine Skyway.

Perhaps the catalyst for Palmetto’s building boom is the success of Riviera Dunes Resort & Yacht Club, a 288-acre riverfront development just over the DeSoto Bridge, two minutes from downtown Bradenton. Active retirees are being drawn to its 220-slip deepwater marina, trendy Mangrove Grill restaurant and custom single-family homes and condo towers.

A recent piece in The New York Times spotlighted Palmetto as a just-emerging Florida hotspot, and the place keeps booming. On the books is Sanctuary Cove, a $1 billion mixed-use development on 211 riverfront acres near the Manatee River off U.S. 301. Corvus Development plans villas, canal-front homes and seven 12-story condominium towers, plus commercial and retail space here.

CHARLOTTE COUNTY
AT A GLANCE

LAND AREA: 694 square miles

PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2006): 222

POPULATION (2005 ESTIMATE): 154,438

POPULATION INCREASE (2000-2006): 9 percent

COLLEGE GRADUATES: 14 percent

MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 23.6 minutes

MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME (2005): $37,820

Nestled between Sarasota and Fort Myers along the banks of Lemon Bay, Charlotte Harbor and the Peace and Myakka rivers, Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County offers more than great fishing, boating and unspoiled wilderness. It’s teeming with arts, culture and history, top-rated restaurants, new and planned waterside living and shopping. It’s not quite “Florida’s Best Kept Secret” anymore.

Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County has 28 miles of beaches, 821 miles of shoreline, much of it protected by the state, 16 golf courses and 70 parks. Manasota Key, the Babcock Wilderness area, Englewood’s charming Dearborn Street and Punta Gorda’s Fisherman’s Village all attract visitors, but it’s the varied, affordable homes and balmy weather that turn them into residents.

Nearly four years after Charlotte took a devastating hit from Category 4 Hurricane Charley, thousands of new hurricane-hardened homes have gone up, upscale hotels are planned or under construction, the new Laishley Park and Marina is open and a cultural center is going up on the banks of Charlotte Harbor. County leaders say Hurricane Charley brought the community together, united under the goal of rebuilding. It also gave planners an opportunity to dream big and redesign an area that had been carved out in the 1950s and 1960s by the now-defunct General Development Corp.

There's a more consistent Mediterranean look along the main U.S. 41 commercial corridor. A Super Wal-Mart is going up at Jones Loop Road. Publix Super Markets’ purchase of 87 acres at the Enterprise Charlotte Airport Park for a future warehouse distribution center is being touted as the largest economic development project in Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County history.

And the housing dollar goes much further here; a median-priced home in Punta Gorda last November was $177,300, $38,500 less than the Florida median.

Nothing pulls people to Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County like its serene waterways, and that's been the case since 1513, when Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon landed on Charlotte Harbor. Soon after, fishing camps rose up along the banks, joined in later years by thriving cattle farms. Lured by world-class fishing, Northerners vacationed here in the late 1800s, but it wasn't until the 1950s and 1960s that development took off. That's when brothers Frank, Elliot and Robert Mackle and their General Development Corp. began converting millionaire Arthur C. Frizzell's cattle and timber ranch into a city of 25,000 home sites, promoting to winter-weary Northerners the deal that would become the state standard: a two-bedroom, one-bath vacation home for $10 down and $10 a month for 10 years.

Charlotte's hundreds of miles of manmade canals provided quick access to the harbor and Gulf of Mexico and gave working folks a waterfront paradise. Redevelopment is changing some of that, but many modest waterfront homes remain.

About 330,000 annual visitors come here to enjoy waterfront breezes, outdoor festivals, the weekly jazz jam in Gilchrist Park, the Charlotte Symphony, Korean baseball spring training at the Charlotte Sports Park, a burgeoning arts community and of course, year-round access to the water.

Big changes are afoot for Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County. Palm Beach developer Syd Kitson's recent purchase of the sprawling, 91,000-acre Babcock Ranch will eventually create a massive new community with 18,000 homes, seven schools and 3 million square feet of commercial space. As part of the landmark deal, the state will gain a 70,000-acre Babcock Webb wildlife preserve that will surely expand the county's outdoor recreation activities.

BURNT STORE

Along Burnt Store Road, neighborhoods—many with sailboat masts peeking above the rooflines—are set among farmlands and still-undeveloped property, and many offer concrete seawalls, deed restrictions, quick access to Charlotte Harbor, and a growing number of shopping centers. Access is now easier with the recent expansion of Veterans Parkway, which links Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County to neighboring Fort Myers.

The gated Burnt Store Marina is home to more than 1,600 families and has a 425-slip deep-water marina, direct Gulf access, and 27 holes of golf and traditional country club amenities at WCI Communities' Burnt Store Marina Golf & Country Club. Nearby, Lennar is building Tern Bay Golf and Country Club, with 1,810 single-family golf course home sites and condominiums on 1,778 acres. The prime attraction is a 27-hole golf course, with a luxury clubhouse, fitness center and tennis courts.

CAPE HAZE PENINSULA

Beach proximity is the draw for this peninsula offering distinct neighborhoods in Gulf Cove, Grove City, Placida, Rotonda and South Gulf Cove.

Cape Haze, on the southern end of the peninsula, has luxurious waterfront homes and many new condominium projects. Deep-water canals provide easy access to Boca Grande Pass. The Cape Haze homeowner's association owns 300 feet of private beach on Don Pedro Island for residents.

Canals are carved into the western boundaries of Grove City, creating fingers of state-named streets that jut into Lemon Bay or skirt Oyster Creek. Mobile homes make up most of the entry-level housing, while prices for those on the higher end, such as the private, gated Eagle Preserve, tend to reflect their water proximity. Cedar Point Environmental Park, off Placida Road across Lemon Bay, offers guided nature walks, an environmental visitors’ center and nature programs.

Near the southwest tip of the Cape Haze peninsula, Placida is surrounded by some of the best fishing waters in the world. In addition to existing single-family homes and gated communities—and hundreds more on the drawing board—Placida is home to the exclusive Coral Creek Golf Club and the Placida Harbor condominiums, whose residents enjoy a private ferry to a beachfront club on nearby Little Gasparilla Island.

Built in the 1960s and pitched nationally by spokesman Ed McMahon, the golf course community of Rotonda was developed unusually with seven pie-shaped neighborhoods: Pebble Beach, Oakland Hills, Pinehurst, Broadmoor, Long Meadow, White Marsh and Pine Valley. The eighth section is dense environmental preserve bordering Coral Creek. Four additional neighborhoods (Rotonda Heights, Rotonda Lakes, Rotonda Sands and Rotonda Villas & Meadows) are located just outside the circle.

On the western bank of the Myakka River, water views are the big draw in Gulf Cove, although the majority of homes in this gridlike neighborhood don't have them. Those that do can enjoy a nearly mile-long view corridor over the mighty Myakka. Non-waterfront property owners can take advantage of the community park, which has a boat ramp.

In the 1950s, General Development Corp. created South Gulf Cove, digging 126 canals totaling 55 miles for freshwater and saltwater fishing and providing access to Charlotte Harbor through the Interceptor Lagoon. Until recently, this deed-restricted community of 6,200 acres had remained pretty much undiscovered as buyers opted for the more in-town locations of Port Charlotte and PGI. Today, there’s new development in the form of shopping centers, new restaurants and four area golf courses, and buyers are seeking out South Gulf Cove, where more than one-quarter of its 15,000 lots are on the water.

ENGLEWOOD

Straddling Charlotte and Sarasota counties, the tightly knit, Gulf-front community of Englewood has a small-town feel, lots of mom-and-pop restaurants and businesses, and affordable housing. That's starting to change as developers are attracted to its location on the Gulf of Mexico and the Myakka River. But it hasn’t changed the flavor of the place.

“It’s got no sense of corporate life whatsoever,” says Wendy Reinhardt, owner of Wendy Reinhardt Realty in Englewood. “It’s the kind of place where the hometown hardware store will put a sign in the window—‘gone to lunch, be back soon.’”

Most of the area's 50,000 residents live on the Charlotte side of the border, which includes tranquil Englewood Beach. Heading north along the water are condominiums, million-dollar homes on secluded Manasota Key, and miles of unspoiled beaches. In town, a YMCA and the Lemon Bay Performing Arts Center provide a host of activities.

The Myakka River borders Englewood on the east, making waterfront sports popular pastimes. Several creeks provide access to Lemon Bay, which was named for the lemon groves established by two brothers who settled the community in 1884. They platted one-acre lots near Lemon Bay to create a downtown area. Now local shops and artists populate the Dearborn Street area, which in recent years has started to become a tourist destination.

PORT CHARLOTTE

The county's most populous community, with nearly 50,000 residents, Port Charlotte was developed in the late 1950s by General Development Corp.

Teardowns are becoming more common for older, two-bedroom canal-front homes; as in other Florida communities, these waterfront homes and properties are quickly outdistancing off-water prices. Port Charlotte is also home to several 55-and-older, maintenance-free, manufactured-home communities that boast golf courses and full social calendars. Riverwood, a 1,300-acre, gated, all-ages golf and country club community developed by Centex Homes, stretches along three miles of the Myakka River in Port Charlotte and has the county's only Golf Digest four-and-a-half-star championship golf course.

On the west side of U.S. 41, buyers will find homes with sailboat access south of Edgewater Drive, the new Edgewater Dog Park and one of Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County's few gated yacht communities, Grassy Point.

In a move that will alter Port Charlotte’s future, developer Syd Kitson recently agreed to take over the long-planned Murdock Village, which is expected to bring 3,500 homes and 1.5 million square feet of retail and commercial business in a New Urban downtown setting.

PUNTA GORDA AND PUNTA GORDA ISLES

Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County's only incorporated city, Punta Gorda has been named one of the country's best places to live by several national publications, in large part because of its charming historic district, four nature and waterfront parks and Fisherman's Village—a riverfront entertainment complex with boutiques, restaurants and a marina.

Punta Gorda, Spanish for "broad or fat point," was named for its location on a wide sweep of land that juts into Charlotte Harbor. The city traces its roots to a landing on the Peace River by Hernando de Soto in 1539. It remained a fishing town until the 1880s opening of the Punta Gorda Hotel, which welcomed more than 3,300 guests, who returned to the North and spread news of the great sport fishing in the waters off Boca Grande.

Traces of the city's past are still evident throughout a state-designated historic district, where turn-of-the-last-century homes with tin roofs, gingerbread woodwork and heart-pine floors are located within a restored Old Florida setting of cobblestone streets, period street lamps, benches and shade trees. Nearby Laishley Park has a 400-foot fishing pier, a public boat ramp and the Spirit of Punta Gorda, a sculpture made from scrapped storm steel commemorating the first anniversary of Hurricane Charley.

The new Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County Events Center is under construction, and the renovation of Punta Gorda’s historic 1920s-era courthouse should be completed later this year.

Punta Gorda Isles, one of Sarasota" target="_blank">Charlotte County's most upscale and oldest neighborhoods, is intersected by more than 100 miles of canals emptying into Charlotte Harbor. PGI’s canals and seawalls are maintained by the city, and home prices are influenced by seawall age, condition and distance from the harbor. A few undeveloped lots remain, and as PGI gets closer to buildout, experts expect to see more teardowns.