- April 5, 2026
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In the five months since Sarasota County government vacated its former administration center at 1660 Ringling Blvd., the county branding has been removed from all exterior surfaces.
Inside and surrounding the building, Benderson Development subsidiary CCB Associates 1 has been planning for a vertical and horizontal expansion of the building into a mixed-use project, details of which have yet to be revealed.
Although the entire property, which includes a surface parking lot along both sides of Morrill Street adjacent to the historic Laurel Park neighborhood includes 2.88 acres, owner representatives from development consultant Kimley-Horn appeared before the city’s Development Review Committee on April 1 with an application regarding just 1 acre of the site.
It’s an important acre, containing the footprint of the building along Ringling Boulevard and immediate surrounding parking on the north side of Morrill Street. That building currently straddles two zoning districts — Downtown Core to the north and Downtown Edge to the south — and a corresponding split future land use designation of Downtown Core and Urban Edge.
The applicant is requesting a rezone without a site plan of the Downtown Edge portion to Downtown Core with an associated Comprehensive Plan Amendment to change the future land use classification from Urban Edge to Downtown Core.
Simply put, the developer is seeking a single zoning designation to allow the entire building height, rather than just one portion of it, to be raised to up to 10 stories.
The Downtown Edge zone district restricts building heights to five stories. Downtown Core permits 10 stories. The existing building is six stories in height.
Both requests require City Commission approval, the enabling Comprehensive Plan amendment a supermajority.
Benderson acquired the property from Sarasota County for $25 million in December 2021, leasing it back to the county through 2025 while its new administration building was planned and constructed in the Fruitville Farms area off Fruitville Road in the northeastern corner of the county. Scheduled to be occupied by the start of 2026, construction is nearing completion as staff has been scattered throughout the county and County Commission meetings have been held in the South County headquarters in Venice.
The first community workshop about the redevelopment was held in August 2023 to receive feedback from residents on the original proposal for the redevelopment. That was followed in October 2023 by a three-day planning charrette, which compiled input from city residents to shape a development plan for the property and to study alternatives.
Those results and anticipated development applications at the time were shared with the Laurel Park Neighborhood Association at its membership meeting in February 2024. Since then, Benderson re-engaged the community on its plans and an additional community workshop was held in December 2025 focusing only on the parcel containing the existing building and surrounding parking area.
Significant among those changes was the abandonment of potential to build residential properties in the parking lot on the south side of Morrill Street against the neighborhood boundary. Instead, Benderson proposes to create improved parking for the commercial aspects of the redevelopment and green space.
The proposed zoning changes would allow redevelopment of the existing building, as the application reads, “either within its existing footprint or with modest expansion, facilitating adaptive reuse.”
“The proposed future land use and zoning amendment supports the principles of New Urbanism and aligns with the goals established within the Sarasota City Plan,” the application narrative reads. “The applicant intends a redevelopment that promotes a vibrant, walkable environment along Ringling Boulevard, complementing the recent Complete Street improvements. This amendment enables the adaptive reuse of the existing building, allowing vertical expansion while utilizing existing infrastructure.”
It further describes the redevelopment “will activate the streetscape, support multimodal transportation and enhance nearby public spaces, furthering the city’s vision for a connected, livable urban corridor on Ringling Boulevard. Additionally there will be economic development benefits of attracting employees and supporting a diversity of land uses downtown.”
Because zoning change requests without a site plan require little input from city staff pertaining to building code, the request received partial DRC sign-off.
