- January 2, 2025
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By the end of 2025, Sarasota County government will complete its relocation from the county’s long-time headquarters on Ringling Boulevard in downtown Sarasota to its new facilities in Fruitville Commons next to Celery Fields.
Benderson Development acquired the current admin building in 2021 for $25 million, the county leasing from its new owner through the end of this year. The shell of the 120,000-square-foot building has risen above surrounding developing in the growing Fruitville Commons area as the county continues consolidating many of its facilities to locations along I-75, making them more accessible to south county.
Construction began in fall 2023 with completion of the approximately $90 million project scheduled for fall 2025. Benderson has already begun planning for a multi-use development for the downtown site, including surrounding parking lots.
Downsized from its downtown building, the new center will include County Commission offices and meeting chambers, County Administration, County Attorney, Clerk and Comptroller, Communications, Human Resources, Libraries and Historical Resources and Office of Financial Management. Other facilities will include a press room, Access Sarasota television studio, conference rooms, break rooms and a wellness center.
The move to east of the city into incorporated Sarasota County was in part driven by economics and creating an opportunity for the highest and best use of the downtown property.
“It was going to cost about $49 million in improvements over the next 20 years, so this is a good decision,” said County Commissioner Ron Cutsinger at the groundbreaking ceremony. “As we move out of that facility and as it is redeveloped in the heart of downtown Sarasota, that's going to create an economic engine. The redevelopment is going to be so exciting down there.”
A mile or so away from the new administration building at the corner of Palmer Boulevard and Apex Road, construction continues on Sarasota County’s new Planning and Development One Stop Administration Building, which broke ground on spring 2024.
The 55,600-square-foot building next to Celery Fields is being built on 6.5 acres next to Sarasota County Fire Station No. 8. This facility will centralize most departments that encompass the review and permitting of projects in North Sarasota County, incorporating Planning and Zoning, Environmental Protection, Building and Code Enforcement departments.
Spaces will include general office, customer service, conference rooms, training rooms and more. Construction of the approximately $46.5 million project is scheduled for fall 2025 completion.
The One Stop Shop comes at a time of rapid development in unincorporated Sarasota County. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Planning and Development Services Director Matt Osterhoudt said the last half-decade has seen his department facilitate more than 4,000 multi-family and more than 10,000 single-family residences.
“The building development services department is a major component of the Sarasota County government,” said former Sarasota County Commissioner Mike Moran at the groundbreaking. “For the last five years combined, they've issued more than 220,000 permits. This building will better the permitting process for our staff and community members.”
Not far removed to the west of the county administration construction sites is the interchange of Fruitville Road and Interstate 75, where the Florida Department of Transportation will embark on a five-year project to convert the interchange into a diverging diamond.
Construction of the $168 million project is scheduled to begin in early 2025. When complete in early 2030, the interchange will resemble those north and south of it at University Parkway and Clark Road.
The design includes reconstruction of the interchange, shifting eastbound traffic to the left to allow for improved access to northbound I-75 and westbound traffic to the left to allow for improved access to southbound I-75. This approach reduces the number of phases for the signals and improves delay times.
In addition, the project will widen about two miles of I-75 from Palmer Boulevard to north of Fruitville Road, to a six-lane highway with three through lanes in each direction. The existing bridges over Fruitville Road will also be replaced. The project also includes widening of about 1.6 miles of Fruitville Road from Honore Avenue to east of Coburn Road.
In November 2023, Benderson Development appeared to be in something of a hurry to push a privately initiated, out of cycle comprehensive plan amendment that would allow it to build a 210-room hotel in the heart of Siesta Village, just three months after the 12th Judicial Circuit Court struck down plans to build a hotel there.
One month later, the County Commission approved moving forward on a study of a comprehensive plan change that would allow high-intensity hotels on the island.
One year later, Benderson’s proposal has not reached the public realm, but is reportedly under staff review as Siesta Key residents and the organization Save Siesta Key have maintained a wary eye on this and other repeated attempts to bring high-rise hotels to the island, and will continue to do so in 2025.
And they have good reason.
In October, 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Hunter Carroll ruled that a planned hotel near Stickney Point Road at the former Wells Fargo site may proceed, determining that prior challenges to the project were not filed in a timely fashion per state statute. Carroll’s ruling, though, prohibits future large hotels unless they comply with the county’s Comprehensive Plan.
An amendment to the plan, as Benderson is proposing, may change all that should it be considered in 2025.
No site plans have been filed yet with the county, but at the very least Illinois-based Torburn Partners will work toward a site plan for its planned redevelopment of the former Sarasota Square Mall.
In April 2024, Torburn won Sarasota County Commission approval to convert the mainly vacant 93-acre site into a town center-style mix of retailers, restaurants, offices and apartments, bringing an upscale lifestyle experience to the site just south of the city near Palmer Ranch. With the AMC 12 theater closing in November, the only remaining tenants at the otherwise abandoned mall are Costco and JC Penney, both part of the redevelopment plan.
Torburn is planning a project that includes up to 1,200 residential units, 692,500 square feet of non-residential uses and 10.4 acres of open space.
A few miles to the north on South Tamiami Trail in the Sarasota city limit, Benderson Development is expected to continue formulating its plans for the former Southgate Mall, now named The Crossings at Siesta Key.
Benderson plans to redevelop the 35-acre property into a mixed-use lifestyle village, having won a Comprehensive Plan amendment from the Sarasota City Commission in November. The developer is planning a mix of commercial, retail and restaurant uses with a possible 848 residential units.
Whenever actual construction begins, both mall redevelopment projects envision multi-year horizons, with work likely continuing well into the late 2030s.
