- September 17, 2026
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A plan to replace a seven-year vacant Winn-Dixie store at Midtown Plaza with a mixed-use project including apartments, a hotel and retail space was rejected by the Sarasota Planning Board.
The Planning Board decision in this project, for the Commercial General District, is final and is not a recommendation to the City Commission. However, the applicant may appeal its decision to the commission.
The proposal at the corner of South Tamiami Trail and Prospect Street just south of Bahia Vista Street — and a few miles south of downtown — did comply with the zoning code, and it didn't receive any objections from the planning staff. It also didn’t run afoul with any traffic concurrency standards. Rather, according to board member Dan Clermont, who made an unsuccessful motion to approve the redevelopment on Sept. 9, it was declined because three of the five-member panel just didn’t like it.
The rejection marks another setback in the project for Midtown Associates and its principal, Sarasota attorney Gavin Meshad, who owm of Midtown Plaza, The developer began the effort to redevelop the site of the former Winn-Dixie store in 2018 when it sought, and received, a zoning change from Commercial Shopping Center Community to Commercial General District.
At that time Meshad had hoped to secure a tenant or tenants to replace Winn-Dixie and the rezoning was needed to allow more flexibility for any redevelopment of the property.
With no activity since, Meshad submitted a plan for the mixed-use redevelopment in June 2025.
The three commissioners who voted against it were opposed to the project — which planned to replace a 45,869-square-foot grocery store and some of its associated parking lot with a 145-unit hotel and 91 apartments, 23 of them priced as attainable — out of concerns for potential additional traffic on East Avenue to the rear of the site, traffic circulation within the development and the placement of buildings too far from South Tamiami Trail.
On the latter point, they said the site plan did nothing to facilitate the activation of the area as envisioned in the Commercial General District.
“This is kind of hard to deny based on some of the things that are emotional, some of them imagined, some of them suppositions that aren't supported necessarily by any hard fact, and that's what we're always charged with here,” Clermont said.
He was joined in his motion of support by the board’s newest member, Tiffany Nisbet. The motion was opposed by Alexander Neihaus, Shane Lamay and Douglas Christy. The subsequent vote to deny the application went along the same lines.
“I really want to like the project because I really think something needs to happen on that property, and obviously what is there today is not great,” said Lamay, an architect. “We could do so much better than this. There's a bunch of ways it could be reconfigured to make improvements along the East Avenue side in terms of traffic, and I think along the (Tamiami Trail) side. It's very inwardly focused.”
Traffic flow rose to the surface as a primary concern, particularly with the addition of a curb cut off East Avenue as a fourth point of ingress and egress. Architect Javier Suarez said that driveway was added since the initial project submittal to satisfy Sarasota County Fire Department requirements and to better distribute traffic flow.
“We have to deal with a lot of things, and we understand the concern of the neighborhood,” Suarez said. “We feel that in doing what we've done, we have diluted the traffic the best we can.”
There were other issues that concerned nearby Arlington Park residents, such as the location of commercial dumpsters, pedestrian safety and spillover parking onto neighborhood streets, although at 231 spaces, including surface and a two-level parking garage, the project exceeds the code requirement by 30. There is also a binding joint use agreement with the northern portion of Midtown Plaza anchored by Michaels On East — both parcels owned by developer Midtown Associates — to accommodate extra vehicles.
The city determined the additional traffic volume over previous grocery store use, albeit unused for eight years, at about 1%, meaning that, should a similar use occupy the space instead, there would be virtually no difference.
That didn’t sway board members opposed to the project as presented.
“I was really excited for this project. I think if you look at the future land use map the intent, from an urban planning standpoint, is to revitalize the street,” Lamay said. “What this does is the exact opposite.”
Project consultant Joel Freedman countered that “Having a hotel in that corner that has nothing today is activating it, and someday in the future, with a redevelopment of the northern parcel that's not touched here, that may happen. But right now, you’ve got to take baby steps.”
This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.
