Drive over the John Ringling Causeway on a September evening and the island reads the same as it always has. Royal palms lining the interior streets. Docks quiet at low tide. The occasional golf cart heading toward the tennis courts. Look a little closer, though, and the season ahead is the busiest Bird Key has had in years. The clubhouse that has anchored island life since 1960 is rising from a foundation slab. The Circle across the bridge is filling in storefronts that sat dark after the 2024 storms. And the calendar between now and New Year's is packed enough that a resident who has coasted through the last two quiet summers is about to notice a very different rhythm.
Here is what is actually happening, and when.
The clubhouse, on the clock
If you have been watching the construction fence at the end of Bird Key Drive, you already know the old 65-year-old Bird Key Yacht Club is officially a memory, having been completely demolished over the past week to make way for a $27.5 million replacement clubhouse shaped around climate resilience. What sits on the 4.99-acre site now is nothing like the low-slung building most members remember. Designed by local DSDG Architects, the single-story clubhouse will be located in the exact footprint of the original, but will be elevated to meet FEMA standards.
The scale is worth pausing on. The new facility, set to open in late 2026 with the goal of hosting "the biggest New Years party Bird Key has ever had," will be a 21,500-square-foot structure plus an additional 3,500 square feet of covered outside decks. It will replace the existing 22,300-square-foot clubhouse. Almost identical square footage, entirely different building, sitting several feet higher off the ground.
The financing tells you how invested members are. It is being built with 100% member financing. The club, which currently has about 275-280 members out of a capped capacity of 425, raised $20 million through a voluntary member loan program with individual loans ranging from $50,000 to several million, all secured by the land. The remaining $7.5 million will be gathered through operations. New member fees to join the club have gone up to $55,000.
Leadership changed hands in June. Commodore Saul Landesberg assumed his new leadership role with the Bird Key Yacht Club at the passing of the gavel on June 20 at Art Ovation Hotel. Tony Britt, who steered the club through the demolition and financing, handed off the hard hat to Landesberg, whose watch year runs through the ribbon cutting and beyond. If the schedule holds, the first New Year's Eve in the new building will be a members' story locals will be telling for years.
The Circle is reopening, one address at a time
While the yacht club is the private-side story, the Circle is the public one. Nine minutes on foot from most Bird Key driveways, St. Armands has been the island's default dinner-out for decades. It went quiet after Helene and Milton. It is not quiet anymore.
Here is what has changed and what is coming, address by address:
Address | Before | Now / Coming |
|---|---|---|
22 S. Boulevard of the Presidents | Le Colonne | Nōnnō Umberto, opened Dec. 29 soft, ribbon pending |
300 John Ringling Blvd. | Tommy Bahama | Pinchers, targeting October 2026 |
24 & 28 N. Boulevard of the Presidents | Chase branch + former candy shop | Shore restaurant in three-story mixed-use, Q4 2027 |
431 St. Armands Circle | Café L'Europe | The Café on St. Armands with Wet Bar and Café Soleil |
The Nōnnō Umberto reopening is the most immediate change. Le Colonne, a longstanding Italian restaurant on St. Armands Circle, plans to reopen as Nōnnō Umberto later this year. She and her husband, Simone Salustri, have looked forward to the opening all year. When hurricanes Helene and Milton forced the family to close Le Colonne, they didn't know what the next steps would be. The soft open in early January was, by their own admission, not soft. The owners of Nōnnō Umberto expected a fairly quiet soft opening for the rebranded Italian restaurant on St. Armands Circle the first week of January. But it was anything but quiet as staff served more than 250 people on the first night, growing to 800 people over the course of the first week, according to co-owner Amber Mayner. The name honors Simone's father, Umberto Salustri, who opened the original Le Colonne. Ravioli aragosta stayed on the menu.
The bigger footprint change lands this fall. A seafood restaurant with 10 locations around the Gulf Coast is coming soon to St. Armands Circle. Pinchers signed a lease for more than 8,000 square feet at 300 John Ringling Blvd. in Sarasota, where it plans to begin serving customers this fall. "We are shooting to be open in October," Kevin Rooney, vice president of marketing and advertising for Phelan Family Brands, tells the Business Observer. That is a substantial box for the Circle. The St. Armands restaurant will have in the "neighborhood" of 75 to 100 employees, according to Rooney, with around 200 seats. If you have been driving past the old Tommy Bahama corner wondering when something would land there, October is the answer.
Shore is a longer horizon. Plans to create a new location for Shore Restaurant are moving forward, after a St. Armands landlord submitted a site plan to the city of Sarasota for a mixed-use project along North Boulevard of the Presidents. Mindy Kauffman of Kauffman Shore Properties LLC is listed as the property owner of 24 and 28 N. Boulevard of the Presidents, according to the development application. There, she is proposing a three-story building that would contain retail, restaurant and residential space on 0.33 acres. The design has flood in mind from the outset. "The building design and site layout are intended to respond to the scale and character of St. Armands while incorporating resilient construction and flood-conscious improvements appropriate for the barrier island environment," Waddill and Pardue write in the development application. It would incorporate "updated construction measures and flood-conscious design measures such as flood panels on the first story, which will improve the long-term resilience of the property." The buildout date for the project is the fourth quarter of 2027, according to the development application.
Notice the through-line. Every rebuild on the Circle is being underwritten on the assumption that the next storm is a matter of when, not if. The old Le Colonne, the demolished Bird Key Yacht Club, the new Shore building, and the FEMA-elevated new clubhouse are all part of the same conversation. The island is not just reopening. It is rebuilding to a different standard.
The walk almost no one on Bird Key does often enough
If you have not walked to Bird Key Park at the foot of the causeway lately, this is the season for it. It sits on the island side of the bridge and functions as the neighborhood's public bay-front, even though most residents already have their own. This park is a popular location to fish, bike, enjoy the sunset, launch a canoe or kayak or walk your leashed pet. Located just before you exit the south side of the John Ringling Causeway. It also has two pavilions, with picnic tables, and a public restroom. Park is open 5 a.m. – 11 p.m., daily.
The best use of it, honestly, is as the trailhead for the bridge walk. Park the car, walk the causeway to the downtown side and back, and you have covered the only meaningful hill in this part of Sarasota. The view of the skyline coming back toward Bird Key at sunset is the postcard most residents forget they live inside of.
The season's calendar, without the noise
Between now and the yacht club ribbon cutting, the Circle carries the social weight. A short list of what's worth blocking on the calendar:
- Savor Sarasota, running through June each year, with Crab & Fin among the Circle participants at a fixed-price $25 lunch and $45 three-course dinner
- St. Armands Circle Art Festival, the winter anchor, with the 2027 edition following the January 24–25, 2026 pattern
- Exotic Cars on the Circle and the Jaguar Festival d'Elegance, both returning and free
- Fright Night, now in its 17th year, which takes over the Circle in late October
If you would rather not drive, the Bay Runner trolley still runs free between downtown, St. Armands, and Lido. It is the underused piece of Sarasota infrastructure that makes a night on the Circle no different from a night downtown, minus the parking.
A note for the neighbors
Every neighborhood has a season where the surface looks unchanged and the substructure is being replaced. Bird Key is in one right now. The clubhouse is coming back. The Circle is filling in. The bridge is where it has always been. Watching all three settle into their next chapter is one of the quiet privileges of already living here.
If you own on the island and want a considered read on how this season's changes are being priced into the market, or you are thinking about what a new build might look like on your lot as neighbors rebuild around you, Victoria Turner at Michael Saunders & Company would be glad to talk. Book a Consultation whenever the timing suits you.
