Rodrigo Trepp was visiting the East Coast of Florida with his family on a half-vacation, half-site exploration tour for development sites for his company, Trepp Developments, when his financial partner, Michael Ealy, suggested he take a look at Sarasota.
That was in December 2019, just before the world turned upside-down, but the city and Gulf Coast made a lasting impression. So much so that Trepp assembled a local team of well-known development and real estate names — Hoyt Architects, Michael Saunders and Joel Freedman — to help bring to life the Bolivia-based company’s first U.S. project, SOTA Residences & Hotel, to the corner of Main Street and Goodrich Avenue.