Amara on Sarasota Bay

Amara occupies one of the largest single sites on Golden Gate Point — roughly 2.3 acres with about 660 feet of bay frontage on the east side of the peninsula, just west of the John Ringling Causeway. The site was home to Pier 550, a collection of 51 low-rise condominiums built between 1948 and 1953; Sarasota's Planning Board approved the replacement plan on January 8, 2025, and demolition of the old buildings began that same month. In their place, The Ronto Group — the Naples-based developer behind The Owen a few doors north — is building two towers in partnership with Wheelock Street Capital: a 31-residence north building and a 23-residence south building, each eight stories over a level of parking. Sales launched in February 2025 from Ronto's downtown Sarasota gallery, and as of mid-2026 the project is under construction, having broken ground in early 2026 on an approximately two-year build. Note that a few early reports described the project differently — one trade article referenced 56 units — but the developer's own materials and the approved site plan consistently describe 54 residences in two towers.

The 54 residences are spread across seven floor plans ranging from about 2,500 to more than 3,700 square feet, a scale closer to single-family living than to typical condominium layouts. MHK Architecture, working from its Sarasota office, oriented both towers toward the water — the developer states that every residence has a bay view, looking across the channel toward Marina Jack and the downtown waterfront. Interiors are by Lillian Wu Studio of New York. The collection includes seven penthouses, two of which have private pools, and second-level signature residences with expanded outdoor space. The first residential level sits roughly fifteen feet above grade atop the parking podium, a flood-resilience measure that also lifts even the lowest homes well above the seawall.

Amenities concentrate on the second floor of the north building and in the shared outdoor space between the two towers, where a common pool deck with a spa faces the bay. Plans include a fitness center with sauna and steam rooms, hot and cold plunge pools, a game room, an outdoor yoga lawn, a bocce court, fire-pit seating areas, and a bayfront esplanade running along the seawall. On the water, the developer has applied for 21 boat slips and anticipates at least 12 will be approved for residents — worth watching, since the docks remain subject to permitting and are not guaranteed in final form. Parking totals 115 spaces across a shared garage beneath the buildings, private garages, and surface spots.

Life on the Point moves at walking pace — residents loop the palm-lined perimeter sidewalk in the morning, watch sailboats stage in the mooring field off Marina Jack, and cross the causeway path for longer waterfront runs. Evenings tend toward short trips: dinner on Palm Avenue, a performance at the opera house, or drinks at O'Leary's Tiki Bar on the bayfront. For boaters, the planned slips would put the Gulf about twenty minutes out through Big Pass, and Marina Jack's fuel docks and dining sit directly across the channel.