The Jewel

The Jewel rises 18 stories at the corner of Main Street and Gulfstream Avenue — the exact point where downtown Sarasota's main artery arrives at the bayfront. Developed by longtime Sarasota builder Tom Mannausa through Main Street J Development Co. and designed by Gary Hoyt of Hoyt Architects, the tower was announced in 2012, broke ground in April 2014, and reached its full 236 feet with completion in 2016. It is a true mixed-use building: nineteen residences sit above street-level commercial space and a full floor of amenities, so the building keeps a working relationship with Main Street rather than turning its back on it. The final stretch of construction was not smooth — a temporary certificate of occupancy came in July 2016, followed that fall by litigation between the developer and the general contractor over delays and costs — but the building long since settled into life as one of downtown's smallest and most distinctive addresses. With only nineteen homes, nine of them spanning a full floor, The Jewel offers something genuinely scarce in the downtown core: tower living at boutique scale, with Sarasota Bay filling the west-facing glass and Main Street's restaurants beginning at the front door.

Every residence at The Jewel is wrapped in floor-to-ceiling glass under ceilings of about eleven feet four inches, and every home comes with a generous balcony and secure on-site parking. Nine of the nineteen residences occupy an entire floor of the tower; the remainder are arranged two per floor or as two-story lofts on the lower residential levels, and the collection tops out in a full-floor penthouse. Homes were delivered with designer lighting and high-end kitchen appliances, and published floor plans run from roughly 2,000 to more than 4,000 square feet — a full-floor fourth-level residence, for example, offers about 4,059 square feet inside plus a 380-square-foot terrace. Because Main Street bends toward the water here, west-facing rooms take in Sarasota Bay and the Gulf beyond it, while other exposures look down the length of downtown.

The third level is given over to a roughly 15,000-square-foot amenity deck that separates the commercial floors from the residences above. The centerpiece is a 20-meter pool with a bar, grill deck and waterproof televisions, joined by a Jacuzzi, sauna and steam bath. A fitness suite runs on TechnoGym equipment, with a Pilates area and a yoga room warmed by heated floors. Outside on the deck are a six-hole putting green and a platform tennis court that doubles for pickleball. Residents also share the Emerald Club, a lounge with a bar, seating areas and an oversized television, plus a rooftop viewing deck at the top of the tower. Garage parking occupies the lower levels, street-level retail anchors the ground floor, and the building is professionally managed, with LED-accented architecture that reads clearly on the evening skyline.

Daily life at The Jewel runs on foot. Mornings might begin with a bayfront walk across Gulfstream Avenue, coffee on Main Street, or early laps in the 20-meter pool. On Saturdays the farmers market takes over Lemon Avenue and the surrounding blocks from seven in the morning until one in the afternoon, year-round. Evenings are the simplest part: dinner somewhere along the nearby blocks, a performance at the opera house or a downtown stage, then home to watch the harbor lights from a west-facing balcony — or from the rooftop viewing deck, where sunset over the bay closes the day.