- December 5, 2025
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More new development is coming to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport area with a new medical office building planned for University Parkway directly across from Airport Circle.
At its June 11 meeting the Sarasota Planning Board unanimously recommended approval by the Sarasota City Commission a 6,050-square-foot development on a heavily wooded 1.7-acre parcel nestled among several airport-area hotels. The property is owned by Benderson Development and the applicant is CCB Associates 5 LLC, which according to state records lists Shaun Benderson as among four managers.
The zoning for the currently vacant property is Commercial Park with a future land use classification of Urban Mixed Use. East of the property is the Hyatt Place hotel, a Sleep Inn hotel is to the south, and a Courtyard by Marriott hotel is to the west.
At the time of a tree survey, there were 170 trees with 144 proposed to be removed and replaced with 68 new trees. Of the 17 grand trees on the site, one of which is dead, the proposal is nine are to be removed.
The focal point of the Planning Board members’ discussion was on the trees.
“This truly is the first thing you see when you come out of the airport,” said Vice Chairman Shane Lamay, who wondered aloud if an opportunity existed to push the building deeper into the site and leave more trees along University Parkway.
“We are limited in our parking requirements and we're maxed out with the drive aisle within that area,” said Michael Booker of WRA Engineering. “Pushing the building back would cause issues there and probably put us below the required parking count.”
The applicant is providing a combination of mitigation with the replacement trees and will pay into the city’s mitigation fund to compensate for the trees that are being removed because room on the site is not adequate to install 7-inch caliper trees.
Dan Clermont of the Planning Board said he was content with the effort to save grand trees on the site.
“It's not too many times that we see development where there are seven of them that are going to be retained, although you still have to mourn the eight that are going to be going away,” he said. “One of them was in bad shape … but a good job in working together to make it happen.”
The Planning Board also unanimously approved a site plan and minor conditional use application for Club 23, a private club to occupy a 1,266-square-foot portion on the second floor at 1620 Main St., currently part of a larger co-work space. Operators are pursuing a license to operate the private club as a bottle club and to sell alcohol.
The club will include a conference room, three offices, a lounge area and a coffee bar/snack area. It will also have personal lockers and hold a bottle club license to allow members to bring their own alcohol.
The operaton was described as a hybrid of bottle club Waterworks, which is at 1005 N Orange Ave., and the co-work space WeWork business model.
“If Waterworks and WeWork had a child, that would be us,” said club representative Victor Cipolla. “We are looking for minor special conditional use permitting our club, so we can be a private club in downtown.”
First, though, the use needed to be approved by the city.
Already in operation by the same ownership on the first floor beneath the planned club and workspace is a coffee shop and gallery area with an outdoor atrium area for seating.
