SARASOTA – Software entrepreneur Jesse Biter’s plans for affordable apartments downtown may have new life with the involvement of another developer.
On Monday, attorneys representing the Atlanta-based Carter Acquisitions, LLC, will ask the City Commission to let the project proceed under a new site plan and without paying into the city’s affordable housing trust fund.
The move signals that Biter either has a buyer or a new partner in the deal, and the 10-story apartment building he pitched months ago may not be dead after all.
In July, Biter said he was unable to get the necessary bank financing to build the “new urbanist” apartments and retail space he envisioned at the former United Way building on Second Street. The $46 million project had been much anticipated partly because of Biter’s claims that higher density and more affordable housing were essential to a healthy downtown.
