Sarasota County's new headquarters projected to cost at least $72 million

Somewhere within 2 miles of Interstate 75 between Fruitville Road and Laurel Road is the target of the Sarasota County administration to build its new government center, where it will relocate after it vacates its facility in downtown Sarasota.

Settling on an 8-acre site in the Fruitville Farms development just north of Celery Fields, many of the administrative staff workers will move to the new four-story, 120,000-square-foot building when the county turns over its current 170,000-square-foot headquarters and two adjoining properties to Benderson Development Co. The county had previously looked at land on Cattlemen Road for the new project.