Sarasota County advances 5,700-home project near Palmer Ranch

The developers of Sarasota’s master-planned community Palmer Ranch – Palmer Ranch Holdings, headed up by philanthropist and businessman Hugh Culverhouse — received unanimous approval from Sarasota County commissioners for its latest project: Palmer East. 

Proposed to be built over 20 years, the master-planned development would include 5,700 homes and nearly 1.5 million square feet of commercial space east of the Interstate 75 interchange at State Road 681 near Nokomis in south Sarasota County.

The economic development piece of the project is called the town center, which would include up to 1,000 residential units, of which 500 would be for those making 80% area median income; 600,000 square feet of commercial space; 630,000 square feet of office space; and 250,000 square feet of light industrial space. It would be built near the I-75 interchange.

"We lose businesses to Manatee County, Lee County, Collier all the time," Palmer Ranch Holdings President Justin Powell said during a commission meeting Tuesday  because there is no place for businesses to go. "We should be in the fight for those. But we also have homegrown businesses that need to grow, and we don't have sites for them."

Palmer East would be built on about 2,350 acres.

“This provides opportunities for employment, corporate and regional headquarters relocations,” Jim Paulmann of consulting firm Stantec said, as part of the Palmer East team presenting the project to commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday.  He said the team had been collaborating with the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County on the employment center component of the project.

“Working with the EDC, we understand that what's left in Sarasota County are 5- and 10-acre parcels that would have to be sandwiched in between other developments,” Paulmann said. “This is the only place where you could get a corporate relocation, and this is very important at an interchange.”

The town center would be built only once the I-75 interchange was converted to full access, project officials said. Funding to design the interchange is planned for 2029, which state officials have indicated could be moved up to 2028, according to Frank Domingo, also of Stantec.

Once developed, the town center would provide a place where people could live and work, project officials said.

“The EDC has determined that if built out, this town center would create 1,766 jobs that would cumulatively result in income of $130 million to residents within Sarasota County,” said Williams Parker attorney Charlie Bailey, representing Palmer Ranch Holdings.

Commission Chair Ron Cutsinger said that as someone who had sat on the EDC advisory board, he knew space was needed for businesses looking to relocate.

“One of the most exciting things to me is this town center and what that means for the opportunity to develop business parks and develop light industrial and bring … office headquarters here and high-paying, meaningful, sustainable year-round jobs to our community, which we've really desperately needed,” Cutsinger said. “That area [will provide] the kind of landing zones we need for some of these businesses.”

After about two hours of hearing about Palmer East, four county commissioners (Commissioner Joe Neunder was absent) passed three ordinances and a comprehensive plan amendment transmittal to the state related to the town center concept that the project needed to proceed.

“I’m very much in favor of this development, quite frankly because of the increased employment that it's going to bring,” Commissioner Mark Smith said before voting.

The next step is for the Florida Department of Commerce to review and comment on the town center part of the proposal. Then the project will return to commissioners for another vote.