Real estate

Rooms with a view

Bay Vista, a 19-home gated community under construction in Apollo Beach, offers one of the neighborhood's last bayfront locations.

By JANET ZINK
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 31, 2003

APOLLO BEACH -- Steve and Karen Norris moved to Florida from Detroit two years ago in search of what so many Northerners come looking for: sun, sand and waterfront property.

They found their piece of paradise in Bay Vista, a 19-home gated community under construction in Apollo Beach. It's one of the neighborhood's last bayfront locations.

"We had looked in different areas, the traditional places you'd go. Like Davis Islands, Harbour Island, over to Snell Isle. We even went down to Bradenton and Palmetto," Norris says.

They settled on Bay Vista, largely because of the price.

"The house that we got we couldn't touch in other parts for the money we paid for it," Norris says. "And then the small town. You still get the small town feel, but we live so close to a big city, and that was another appeal."

The Norrises lived in Tampa Palms while their home was under construction and moved in in September.

Nationwide Contractors is developing Bay Vista, which is on Surfside Boulevard between Andalucia and the Ramada Inn.

Owned by Drew Clark and Jerry Warner, Nationwide Contractors has been in business in Florida just under four years, but it has built its reputation constructing and renovating hotels, retail facilities and multifamily housing over the last 25 years. Bay Vista is their first venture into single-family home construction.

The homes, built on lots about 50-feet wide and 175-feet long, offer panoramic views of Tampa Bay with downtown Tampa, St. Petersburg and the Sunshine Skyway in the distance.

Eleven of the 19 lots have already been sold. Home sites start at about $280,000, and the homes cost about $140 per square foot. The 10 designs that Nationwide has developed for clients so far range in size from 3,450 square feet to 7,431 square feet. Two have been completed, a third is under construction, and work will begin on two more in the next few months.

All the homes maximize views of the water.

"It's a challenge because the lots are narrow," Warner says.

The Norris home, a 3,902-square-foot model called the Brightwaters, includes a balcony off the great room accessed by four sliding glass doors that allow for water views from the kitchen and dining room. Upstairs, both the master bathroom and guest bedroom boast waterfront balconies.

The Sandcastle, a 6,000-square-foot home, includes a mother-in-law-suite attached by a breezeway to the main house. A spiral staircase leads from the second-story deck off the waterfront master bedroom to an observation deck. Two additional bedrooms, located on the side of the house, have angled windows that offer water views.

A 16-foot-wide wall of sliding glass doors overlooks the water in the Brightbay, a 4,800-square-foot model.

Nationwide constructs its homes with insulated concrete called Eco-Block, a material often used for construction of hotels to reduce noise.

Karen Norris says because of the Eco-Block, she can't hear the construction on adjacent lots.

"It's like a bank vault," she says.