- January 29, 2026
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The youth of Newtown will soon have access to a brand new club to call their own. On Jan. 20, Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and Desoto Counties received unanimous approval of three measures to clear the way to replace the existing McBean Boys & Girls Club with a brand new facility.
And as a bonus, the existing building will remain operational until the new one is completed, resulting in no disruption of services.
The organization sought site plan, major conditional use and rezoning approval to allow for a new 21,760-square-foot multi-purpose building, approximately 3,600 square feet of covered play area and a multipurpose athletic field to be built on adjacent property acquired by the organization. The multipurpose building is proposed to include a gym, club room, art studio, technology lab, game room, classrooms, community multi-purpose center, kitchen and offices.
The entire 4.49-acre site at 1790 21st St. will be owned by the Sarasota Housing Authority and leased to the Boys & Girls Club, which is adjacent to its under-development final phases of its Cypress Square — formerly known as Amaryllis Park Place — public housing community. The second and third phases of Cypress Square are being built to augment the already completed and occupied first phase.
With the rezoning approval, the entire SHA property will be zoned Governmental within the Housing Authority Overlay District. The major conditional use approval of the added Boys & Girls Club property, which it will convey to the SHA, was necessary as the nonprofit is not a government use.
The Boys & Girls club will have a 40-year lease with the Housing Authority renewable in five-year terms. Commissioner Liz Alpert asked why convey the land to the SHA instead of keeping it.
“Because we would have to pay ad valorem taxes on it,” said Michael Beaumier, president of Osprey Consulting and chairman of the club's building committee. “If the Housing Authority has it, we don’t have to pay taxes.”
Boys & Girls Clubs initially planned to renovate the existing building, but those plans were abandoned.
“Things changed a little bit when we realized what terrible condition our existing club was in,” Beaumier told commissioners. “We spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to figure out how we could fix it and make it stop leaking, and after considerable effort and discussion it was decided that the best thing to do is to tear it down.
“With the acquisition of the new property, we have enough land to be able to build a new Boys & Girls Club at the rear of the site while the existing club stays in operation, which was a big part of our goal for our services in Newtown.”
The project received Development Review Committee sign-off on Oct. 23, 2025. Then on Dec. 10, 2025 the Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the proposed site plan, major conditional use and rezone to the City Commission with the added condition that the removal of the existing building will occur following the issuance of a certificate of occupancy for the proposed building.
“Essentially, what we get is a new club for Newtown and an enhanced facility that is far beyond what we have on-site today,” project consultant Joel Freedman told commissioners. “It’s been a long effort and for us to get to this point, and we'd like to actually start construction as soon as we can.”
The new building will be approximately the same size as the current structure, which will be razed to eventually make way for outdoor play space. Indoor recreation space will keep teens and younger children in separate areas and will also serve as a once-weekly food pantry. The teen center will be open until midnight on Friday nights to keep adolescents off the street and in the club.
“This has been a very positive partnership with the Boys & Girls Club,” said SHA President and CEO William Russell. “For many years they've had scholarships for 25 of our youth every summer to be able to attend their summer programming. We used to have 160 public housing units on this campus, and the entire campus either has been redeveloped or is in the process of being redeveloped. We’re going to have more families living on that campus, but right next door we're also going to have a new club.
"It’s going to be a real asset for the community.”
