Miami, local investors plan medical project on 14-acre Sarasota brownfield site

An investor group working to transform the blighted Marian Anderson property in Newtown — owned by the city of Sarasota — into a job-creating commercial site has won unanimous future land use approval by the Sarasota City Commission, paving the way for an eventual purchase of the property.

At its Nov. 3 meeting, the City Commission approved an amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan to change the future land use classification of 9.2 acres of the total 13.9-acre parcel from Community Commercial to Production Intensive Commercial. That will allow Newtown Gateway LLC to market the brownfield site for a health care clinic and medical office complex to the north; and to the south light industrial with a leaning toward logistics for a packing and shipping type operation. 

A brownfield site is a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may contain the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.