- July 10, 2026
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A 2.89-acre property on Fruitville Road in Sarasota that has been quietly sitting on the market for a couple of months gained momentum this week after one change: a for-sale sign.
“Since we've got the sign up, it's just been gangbusters with calls,” says Senior Commercial Advisor Lee DeLieto Jr. of the DeLieto Team at MSC Commercial.
The property at 4880 Fruitville Road is owned by the Columbus Association of Sarasota, Florida, which is a business entity associated with the Sarasota Knights of Columbus. The asking price for the property is $2.9 million,
The listing includes a nearly 8,000-square-foot building that the Knights of Columbus Our Lady of Victory Council #3358 has used as its hall and rented out for events. The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic-based membership organization.
On Fruitville Road between McIntosh Road and Honore Avenue, the property is zoned for office, professional and institutional use. Its future land use designation is office/multifamily residential.
Since the property was first listed in April, it has seen a range of interested parties.
“We, in fact, had two offers early on, probably in the first 30 to 45 days, from two separate developers, both of which would eventually convert [the site] into the future land use of residential,” DeLieto says. He estimates the property could support about 30 units.
One of the offers was too low, while the other potential buyer could not come to terms with the seller, so neither deal came together, DeLieto says.
Another potential buyer was interested in putting an office in the front and building townhomes in the back of the property.
“There are two entry points,” DeLieto says, and the “backyard area is tree-lined."
While at first the interest seemed to be in the site’s residential potential, DeLieto says, prospects lately have been attracted to the land’s current use.
“Everyone that’s been calling recently has been interested in the building or at least the zoning as it sits,” DeLieto says.
This week, he’s fielded calls from someone looking to open a nonprofit dental office in the building and a developer who wants to use the site for a potential medical office or general office headquarters.
"Office [demand] is definitely picking up," DeLieto says, speaking more generally. "We’re seeing quite a bit of activity, a tie-in between residential agents who are asking us to [help] with their clients who are not only moving here and buying homes, but also moving their businesses and looking for office space."
The Columbus Association of Sarasota, Florida, has owned the site for nearly 50 years. It purchased the Fruitville property in 1977 for $20,000, according to Sarasota County property records, which show the building was constructed in 1978 and remodeled in 1990. With an asking price of nearly $3 million, the owners seek a more than 14,000% return on their investment.
For years, the Knights of Columbus Our Lady of Victory Council #3358 has been renting out the hall for events like weddings, retirement parties and quinceañeras. It has a 250-person capacity with a ballroom, lounge, bar, full commercial kitchen and porte cochere.
“They do have a running calendar of events that’s been healthy for the last several months and will run through December,” DeLieto says. “It’s a balancing act because they are on the market for sale, and if someone said they wanted to close, that means they have to make a business decision.”
Declining membership provided the impetus to sell, DeLieto says.
“The Knights of Columbus, the Elks, the Moose — these are all types of clubs that are slowly but surely being sold off as membership passes away or dwindles,” DeLieto says.
The Fruitville Road property is not the first owned by a fraternal organization that DeLieto’s firm has marketed, he says.
“This is the second Knights of Columbus property we've listed — we sold the one in Bradenton probably 15 years ago,” DeLieto says, adding that the brokerage also sold an Elks Lodge about seven years ago south of the DeSoto Acres area.
The Columbus Association of Sarasota, Florida, DeLieto says, is hoping to sell the Fruitville Road property in the next six months.
