SARASOTA -- Now that the Longboat Key Club has its marina back, new plans are emerging to develop it and its yacht club. Plans call for renovating the marina clubhouse, reopening the restaurant and upgrading the boating services for the members.

Bringing the marina on board gives Longboat Key Club the missing link in its menu of amenities. The yacht club has boating specific features to offer the 2,000 members of the Longboat Key Club, said GM Michael Welly.

Yacht club members will have access to the main club amenities, including golf, tennis and pool areas, but their access to golf will be limited. They will pay the same fees as club social members.

With 291 slips, the marina is one of the largest in the Tampa Bay area. It has 37 slips for sale at prices that average $4,000 per linear foot.

The club is under no pressure to sell the slips in this market climate, using them instead as rentals.

But when the real estate market improves, more marinas are likely to be eliminated for waterfront condo development, said Mark LaPrade, owner of Thunder Marine in St. Petersburg and Harbor at Lemon Bay near Englewood.

Sales of individually owned slips, or dockominiums, have slowed during the real estate slump. The original slip owners priced the slips too high because of perceived limited slip access, LaPrade said. Now the market is slow and prices have declined.

When it costs more to rent than to own, buyers will come back. The long-term forecast for the boating industry is healthy, LaPrade said.

Going contemporary

Upgrading the Longboat Key Club marina is just part of the bigger picture of modernizing the resort and staying competitive.

Among the other changes on the planning boards is a complete redesign of the Islandside golf course by Rees Jones and the addition of a clubhouse, a 28,000-square-foot spa and fitness center, and 30 waterfront homes.

Arvida Co., the resort's developer, sold the marina to Bill Vernon and his investment group in the '80s and sold the resort to Key Club Associates in 1990.

Loeb Partners Realty, the resort's current owner, bought the marina last year and this month announced plans to pour $500 million into the resort and upgrade and expand the facilities. The purchase culminated three years of talks with Vernon.

The club's upgrade will be in four phases for completion in 2014.

Phase A construction will begin in early 2009. Phase B, in 2010, will include a restaurant, lounge meeting rooms and 12 condos in Unit 500 Inn on the Beach.

In Phase C, to start in 2011, 168 new condos will be developed. The final phase will include a 222-room Inn on the Pass Hotel, 51 condos and a 28,000-square-foot meeting center.

In all, the construction will add the hotel rooms and 261 condos, some or all of which may be added to the club's rental program.