- August 20, 2026
-
-
Loading
Loading
Nearly three years after its first community engagement over plans to redevelop the former Sarasota County Administration Center property at 1660 Ringling Blvd., Benderson Development has won unanimous consent from the City Commission for land use changes on 1 acre of the 2.8-acre site.
At its Monday meeting, the commission approved both a comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning, clearing the way for Benderson to continue planning an adaptive reuse of the former Sarasota County Administration Center building and surrounding parking lot.
Benderson's first collaboration with the public came in the form of a three-day planning charrette in October 2023, when it hashed out concepts for the site with the help of residents, mostly from the adjacent Laurel Park neighborhood. That was followed by two more community meetings where the developer shared scaled down versions of its plans.
Those efforts earned the praise of commissioners and the absence of opposition from the neighborhood.
The initial concept was for a mixed-use project covering the entire property. The focus was gradually narrowed to a commercial-only repurposing and expansion of the current six-story building into Class A office space augmented by retail and commercial uses at the 1-acre portion along Ringling Boulevard.
Benderson seeks to add four floors and expand the footprint of the building toward the south. But, to do that, Benderson needed a Comprehensive Plan amendment to change the future land use classification from Urban Edge to Downtown Core and a rezoning from Downtown Edge to Downtown Core.
Both measures won unanimous approval without a site plan. What is known is the height of the structure will transition from 10 stories closest to Ringling Boulevard to five stories on the south side toward Morrill Street. Benderson Development Director of Real Estate Development Todd Mathes said, for the foreseeable future, the other 1.8 acres will remain a parking lot, one significantly upgraded from its current condition, to serve the new office and commercial space.
The Planning Board unanimously recommended approval of Benderson's application at its July 8, 2026, meeting.
A nuance of the site is that, not only was the property split zoned, so was the building itself, the result of sweeping changes to the zoning code two decades ago. That left it non-compliant to current standards.
“Approving the amendment would allow the building to become a conforming structure in Downtown Core, because Downtown Core does have a 10-story height limit,” Senior Planner David Smith told commissioners. “The split future land use classification occurred based upon the Downtown Master Plan 2020.”
So effective was Benderson’s community involvement that the nobody from the usually vocal Laurel Park neighborhood spoke against the proposal. Howard Davis, a board member of Architecture Sarasota and acknowledged expert in adaptive reuse, however; spoke in favor.
“This is really sort of an unintentional zoning problem, so really, we're fixing a mistake. You deal with a lot of difficult issues. I don't think this is one of them,” Davis told commissioners. “The existing building has not and will not win any architecture awards. The search for an architect for this building has gone through any number of architects, not because it's a difficult client, but because they are looking for what I would call transformative architecture. We're going to be transforming really one of the ugly ducklings in Sarasota into a prize.”
Benderson purchased the property from Sarasota County for $25 million in 2021 and leased it back to the county government through the end of 2025.
Commissioners had few questions and concerns about the land use changes, which Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch admitted was rare, particularly when no site plan was presented.
“I think the applicant really was exemplary in their outreach, in their work to try to mitigate the impacts on the neighborhood, and were very sensitive to Laurel Park and its demand for its integrity as a neighborhood,” she said. “It was really directly addressed in respecting the neighborhood and their boundaries and a great example for future developers.”
Once the project moves forward with a site plan for administrative approval, the timeline of which is unknown, 1660 Ringling will mark a continuation of redevelopment along Ringling Boulevard between U.S. highways 301 and 41. Other redevelopments in various stages of planning and approval include residential projects Adagio at Ringling and Palm Avenue to the west and Ringling and Osprey Condos at 1776 Ringling Blvd. to the east. The city awaits plans for a mixed-use redevelopment of 3.1 acres off Ringling between Orange and Pineapple avenues.
Benderson’s process for 1660 Ringling, Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich said, serves as an example for other redevelopment projects to follow.
“We didn't have anybody come up here and speak against this development project,” she said. “That's sort of amazing, isn't it? And so it's a lesson for all of us to keep in mind.”
This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.
