Developer buys land for townhouse-style vacation rentals on Clearwater Beach
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 17, 2022

An Ohio developer has paid a combined $8.54 million for two separate properties on Clearwater Beach, where it is proposing to build townhouse-style vacation rentals.

Separate entities linked to Ohio-based Casto Real Estate paid $5.24 million for the .47 acres at 12 Idlewild St. and $3.3 million for the .46 acres at 692 Esplanade Bay, according to Pinellas County property records. The sales closed Tuesday.

Tourism on Clearwater Beach has exploded in recent years, particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Idlewild Street property has 60 feet of frontage on the Gulf of Mexico. City filings for the site show plans for a development known as The Sands, which includes three townhouse-style vacation rentals with 11 parking spaces on the site.

The entity linked to the Idlewild property took out a mortgage on March 16 with Valley National Bank for $2.687 million, according to county records.

“Development of a long-vacant parcel will improve the area and encourage the redevelopment and use of nearby properties and improve property values in the vicinity,” the application to the city read.

The entity that closed on the Bay Esplanade property also secured a mortgage from Valley National Bank for $1.431 million, according to county records.

The Bay Esplanade property, called Bay Esplanade Living in a report to the city, also has plans submitted to Clearwater for a similar style development as the vacation rentals planned for Idlewild Street.

The Bay Esplanade site has six motel buildings with a total of 13 dwelling units. According to the report, the “condition of the existing building is less than ideal.”

A Casto representative was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

Casto has offices in Sarasota, North Carolina and Ohio and is part of the development team for the retail portion of Midtown Tampa. The company has a combined total of more than 26 million square feet of commercial space and more than 150 commercial and residential properties, according to its website.

Throughout its portfolio, Casto has nearly 5,300 residential units.