Sarasota County buys $13.1M Lakewood Ranch office building

A well-known Lakewood Ranch office building has changed ownership. The Centauri Insurance property at 4081 Lakewood Ranch Blvd. N. has sold, according to commercial real estate broker Chris DiBitetto, whose brokerage Eres Companies represented the seller, Centauri Specialty Insurance Company.

Sarasota County purchased the property for $13.1 million in a deal that closed Nov. 9, DiBitetto says in a text message to the Business Observer.

The office building went on the market in January 2025 for an undisclosed price, the Business Observer previously reported. Constructed in 2017 and spanning 30,000 square feet, it was marketed as a potential corporate headquarters.

At the end of August, Sarasota County commissioners voted unanimously to buy the property for $13.1 million to house its Public Utilities Administration Building, following an independent appraisal that came in at $13.2 million and a county staff appraisal that estimated the value at $13 million.

No money from the general fund was being used for the purchase, Public Utilities Director Brooke Bailey told commissioners at their Aug. 26 meeting. Instead, funding came from the Utility System Revenue Bond 2023 Capital Improvement Program Fund and Utility System Renewal and Replacement Fund. The county also allocated nearly $2.2 million for miscellaneous costs, including a $400,000 generator and fiber, Bailey said.

Next, Sarasota County plans to move about 100 staff to the Lakewood Ranch building from the Sarasota Operations Center on Sarasota Center Boulevard, north of Fruitville Road. Customer service, permitting/planning, engineering, asset management and finance personnel will be relocated to Lakewood Ranch Boulevard North. Moving the employees will enable the county to consolidate its stormwater and transportation teams at the facility on Sarasota Center Boulevard, Bailey said.

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The Lakewood Ranch property is closer to the county's One Stop building and Interstate 75 compared with the previous facility and is rated for 150 mph winds, Bailey said, which are positive attributes for a location that is customer-service facing and functions as a 24/7 operations center.

“The building does come fully furnished,” Bailey added, except for the first floor, and will require minimal renovation.

Centauri Specialty Insurance Co. purchased the 5.01-acre site in 2016 for $1.9 million, according to Sarasota County property records.

Centauri Insurance was founded in 2006. The company has been sold several times in recent years, including most recently in 2024, when Applied Underwriters sold it to Lilypad Insurance. DiBitetto previously told the Business Observer that most of the insurance firm's employees who remain now work remotely.