Manatee County government looks at moving east

As the population center of Manatee County shifts east, services and employees are looking to follow. 

The matter has been a topic of discussion for commissioners since 161 acres were purchased off Lena Road in 2020. The intention was to build a county complex. 

Now, county staff are recommending the purchase of a $23.5 million, 101,312-square-foot building in Lakewood Ranch to serve as the new county administration building. 

The current administration building is located in downtown Bradenton. 

Commissioners Carol Felts and Bob McCann both said the current building will remain in place because it lies within the “county seat,” which is defined by the Florida Constitution as where the principal offices and permanent records of all county officers are located. 

Commission meetings would continue to be held in the Honorable Patricia M. Glass Chambers in the same building, but Development Services and other departments would relocate.

“It’ll save (East County residents) a lot of trips,” Commissioner Bob McCann said. “You could do permitting over here, and on top of that, I’ll have an office here. You can come see me (in Lakewood Ranch), instead of having to go all the way downtown.” 

The seller is listed on the contract as a limited liability company out of Delaware, CMHC 9000 JV LLC, but the manager for the LLC is MH Commercial Real Estate Fund LLC out of West Palm Beach. 

Administration conducted a site visit to the property at 9000 Town Center Parkway Jan. 30. As far as McCann knows, it was the only property considered for purchase because it’s already built and became available. 

According to the listing on LoopNet, a nationwide portal for commercial real estate, the office building opened in 1998 and was renovated in 2011. 

One of the commission’s major concerns for the Lena Road property has been the high cost of building a county complex from scratch. 

Sarasota County is in the midst of moving its administration center east and out of its administration building on Ringling Boulevard in Sarasota. The county is building a four-story, 122,000-square-foot building overlooking Celery Fields.

The county sold its current downtown Sarasota administration building to Benderson Development for $25 million in December 2021. The new center is anticipated to be completed later this year at a cost of about $74 million. 

Manatee County’s total budget to move to Town Center Parkway is under $35 million. 

According to the staff report, the budget includes the purchase price of $24.5 million, plus remodeling, equipment and overhead costs. 

The Lena Road property cost $32.5 million. The land is about 14 times larger than the proposed property on Town Center Parkway, but there’s nothing on it. 

There are no immediate plans for the property next to the Lena Road Landfill, but it will be retained by the county regardless of any new plans. 

While it was listed as a surplus property in 2024, at the start of the year, Commissioner Tal Siddique led the charge to remove it from the list. 

McCann said the county is looking at more utilitarian uses for the site — storage, garages and possibly a fueling station. 

If approved by commissioners, staff has the Town Center location slated for administration offices and services for the public.

Growing pains

Commissioner Carol Felts said the county could use more space. 

She cited the State Attorney’s Office as just one example. Its Manatee office is located in the administration building already, but the office would like to take over the second floor. 

Felts added that said citizens need “adequate parking” when accessing services.

The listing for 9000 Town Center Parkway details 615 surface parking spaces, along with covered parking. 

Courtesy image

Commission Chair George Kruse was out of town when contacted for comment. However, he previously expressed a similar view to Felts when the Lena Road property was being discussed in January. 

He told the East County Observer that the limited parking downtown was only going to work for so long before the county would have to meet the population where it was and stop forcing them to travel downtown. It was merely a matter of when that shift would happen.

Courtesy image 

He noted in the same conversation that Tax Collector Ken Burton Jr. already moved east. The new East Manatee branch merged two branches into one and opened in Lakewood Ranch in September 2024.

Residents needing services from the current administration building have to either pay to park in the adjacent garage or find street parking, which is limited to two hours. 

The city of Bradenton reports over 1,700 parking spaces downtown between the garages and street parking. 

However, about 400 of those spaces are within the current administration building’s parking garage, and plans for that garage are now up in the air. 

Staff’s proposal includes nixing that project to pay for the Lakewood Ranch property. 

When the garage was initially inspected, the report stated, “There are massive areas requiring repair within the next 18 to 24 months.” The project sheet doesn’t date the inspection but the design for the new garage was supposed to be completed by October 2022. 

The cost would’ve been over $8 million for repairs, so staff and commissioners added a nearly $85 million project to the Capital Improvement Plan that would have razed the current facility to build a bigger, more efficient parking garage. 

When the East County Observer reached out to the county for an update on the garage, Information Outreach Manager Bill Logan said he tried to get an update, but all information regarding the purchase is on lockdown until the commissioners can hear the full presentation, as to protect the negotiations. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

Felts said commissioners were told about the building in January or February, but noted that there were and are still tenants in the building. For that reason, she thought it was smart not to make any announcements. 

The building is currently occupied by two tenants, each leasing one floor and about 50,000 square feet of the building. 

TriNet, a Human Resources provider, is on the first floor and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is on the second floor. 

The staff report states that TriNet’s lease would be terminated and the company will be vacated prior to closing on or before Sept. 1. TriNet did not respond to a request for comment. 

FEMA’s lease terminates on Nov. 1, but the agency has one three-month extension upon 30 days written notice. 

If FEMA stays functional under the Trump administration, McCann said FEMA will stay in the building and lease from the county. 

“It’ll give (residents) better contact with FEMA,” he said. “That would be kind of nice to have FEMA, Public Works and the ability for a commissioner to walk in and say, ‘Hey, we need this now.’” 

The seller signed the intent-to-sell contract April 28. Commissioners were scheduled to make their final decision May 6 at the commission meeting.