City land attracts two developers

A piece of city-owned land at a busy high-profile intersection is now being sought after by at least two developers. But, for now, the city is only working with the company offering the lowest bid for the 11.1-acre strip of land on the northeast corner of Fruitville and Beneva roads.

At the Sarasota City Commission’s Monday, July 2 regular meeting, Lakewood Ranch-based Commodore Realty offered Sarasota city commissioners $3 million for the land — the price for which the parcel was last appraised. 

However, on June 4 the city approved the continuation of contract negotiations with Benderson Property Development to sell the land for $1.4 million.

Real-estate developer Brian Lichterman made the $3 million offer during the commission’s public-to-be-heard section of the July 2 meeting.

Lichterman said Commodore Realty “is offering to the city a far superior land use,” with plans to build a multi-family, mixed-use development that would include some commercial outparcels such as a bank and a restaurant.

“It is a critically important, strategic intersection in the largest parcel of unified acreage left along the city’s portion of the Fruitville Road corridor,” Lichterman said.

Benderson Executive Director Larry Fineberg’s pitch to the commission for the land, meanwhile, is an 110,000-square-foot shopping center.

During a tense negotiation exchange during a June regular meeting, Fineberg explained to commissioners his company is willing to pay $1.4 million, even though the last appraisal of the land came in at $3 million, because the company has to perform expensive drainage work that includes filling in a ditch to make the shopping center work. If Benderson discovers it can build its project without filling in the ditch, Benderson officials have told the city the company is willing to pay $3 million.

The sale is also contingent on Benderson and the city being able to get a Comprehensive Plan amendment for the property to allow Benderson to build its shopping center.

Lichterman told commissioners he believes Benderson’s project is more of the same commercial saturation and contends his client’s mixed-use proposal would “more than double the assessed value” of the property. Commissioner Paul Caragiulo has previously suggested the site might garner more tax-roll dollars with a mixed-use project.

Benderson has been working diligently with city staff for more than a year on the proposed purchase and also has preliminary agreements in place with Sarasota County, which currently has a helicopter landing pad and a firefighter-training course on the property.

But senior city planner Steve Stancel said, for now, the commission has not directed staff to do anything but finalize a purchase and sale agreement with Benderson. That agreement will most likely come before the commission in August, and the commission can accept the contract, reject it or modify it.

“It’s our understanding the commission has directed us to come back with a finalized purchase agreement,” Stancel said.

Caragiulo, meanwhile, said although the mixed-use project is appealing, the city would be sending a bad message if it nixed the purchase agreement with Benderson.

“It’s an iffy purchase to begin with because a sale is contingent on Comp Plan changes that need to be done,” Caragiulo said. “If we are going to put the property on the tax rolls, we should get as much as we can for it, but it’s also not the right message to tell Benderson we’re nixing the deal after they’ve been working on this for two years.”