Friends of Seagate Inc.
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Seagate
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| Nearest city | Sarasota, Florida |
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| Coordinates | 27°23′29″N 82°33′52″W / 27.39139°N 82.56444°W |
| Area | 45 acres (18 ha) |
| Built | 1929 |
| Architect | Bergmann, Paul W.; Freeman, George Albree |
| Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals |
| NRHP Reference # | 83001429 |
| Added to NRHP | January 21, 1983 |
Friends of Seagate Inc. was founded in the late 1980s by Kafi Benz as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that is based in Sarasota, Florida in the United States. The organization was founded to champion the preservation of the remaining portions of the large platted subdivision, Seagate, that became the estate of Gwendolyn and Powel Crosley in 1929, was sold to the Horton family in 1947, and was purchased in the late 1970s for development into a club-based condominium project by the Campeau Corporation. Unfortunately the condominium market in Florida collapsed shortly afterward and the ambitious plans to use the 1929 home and auxiliary buildings as the clubhouse and headquarters of the development were never realized. Work permits were kept alive by intermittent, but unrelated and minimal construction until the corporation began to collapse. That collapse led to the demise of many of the most prestigious department stores in America, such as Bonwit Teller, having been acquired by the failing Federated Department Stores division that had become part of Campeau.
The Seagate property changed hands several times with several inglorious plans submitted for redevelopment that met with opposition until Friends of Seagate was founded and a campaign for acquisition was begun that resulted finally, in public acquisition. In 1990 the property was acquired by the state of Florida with a division into two portions, the bay front residence and 16 acres (65,000 m2) being overseen by Manatee County and the much larger, eastern portion of the property along Tamiami Trail being overseen by New College and University of South Florida until their separation and the resulting development of this portion into a new campus only for the satellite, commuter campus of the university.
Following public acquisition of the Seagate property, the objectives of the organization were expanded to broader community development, conservation, and preservation issues involving other archaeological, artistic, cultural, built and natural environmental, and historical concerns.Lake Underwood, acting as a patron to Friends of Seagate, provided much of the funding and equipment for the expansion of the organization.
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