Want to be where the people are? You have to go east.

Even after a decade, the march out east from downtown Sarasota (and in one case, downtown Bradenton) still has legs — with little signs of taking a break. 

This shift in cultural assets, businesses and government entities — in addition to mindset — stems mostly from available, and often relatively cheaper land, with a few other factors at play. One of those factors, of course, is population growth. In four interviews with leaders of these organizations, they all mentioned chasing people as a key reason to move, or expand, out east. 

The list of stuff that’s moved, or announced plans to move, down Fruitville Road to the Lakewood Ranch area around Interstate 75 or in other cases around north Sarasota and the UTC area, is as diverse as it is distinguished and dynamic. 

It includes an orchestra, an aquarium and two separate county government administration buildings. Going back to 2014, the list expands to include the Mall at University Town Center that drew a Saks Fifth Avenue store away from Sarasota and landed the region its first Apple, and later, Tesla store. And in April, furniture retailer IKEA announced it planned to open a store across the parking lot from the mall, another big win for “out east.”

But wait, there’s more. 

Sarasota County, in addition to readying its new $74 million, four-story, 124,000-square-foot admin building, on 1 Apex Road, just off Fruitville, has three active projects out east. That includes an expansion of the Fruitville Road library, which will add an additional 8,500 square feet; a new 30,000-square-foot historical center on former green space behind the library; and a new county planning and development services “one stop” building, which officials say will incorporate all five divisions of that department. Those three projects, according to county documents, will cost just over $60 million in construction and design. 

Courtesy image

Courtesy image

Courtesy image

From the perspective of Sarasota County Commissioner Teresa Mast, the out-east story is akin to the uncertainty of adolescence. “Remember your teenage years,” asks Mast, “those awkward years of when you grew up and had acne and weren’t sure of yourself? When you talk about growth and ‘out east,’ we’re trying to figure out who we want to be when we grow up.”

While uncertainty can breed anxiety — conversations and often complaints on roads, parking, growth, flooding and more suck up a lot of social media oxygen — Mast is also of the mindset that growth is coming, and the key is to handle it responsibly. 

Mast was born in Michigan but moved to east Sarasota with her family as a young girl and has lived the past 50 years in the same general area, which is the district she represents on the commission. She recalls growing up riding a horse near a pond that’s now University Parkway, so the growth conversation is personal, and political. 

With that in mind, Mast, a Republican elected to the commission in 2024, says infrastructure is her No. 1 focus, including expanding Fruitville Road to four lanes out east through Verna Road. That and being careful about which projects are approved and which ones are rejected. She cites master-planned communities like Lakewood Ranch and Wellen Park in south Sarasota County as a yes, most others a no. “It has to be a premier project,” she says, “for me to vote for it.”

Going and going

Some of the key projects that have shaped, and will continue to shape, the out-east story include:

• Manatee County bought a two-story, 101,312-square-foot building at 9000 Town Center Parkway in Lakewood Ranch in September 2025 for $23.5 million. The building, near University Parkway and Interstate 75, is in addition to the county’s downtown Bradenton administration office but also a signal the power structure is shifting east. The building can house 600 employees, and the county began moving personnel into it late last year. Manatee officials have said having a large presence out east is an answer to be closer to the swelling population. 

Photo by Jay Heater

• The Mote Science Education Aquarium (SEA) in north Sarasota opened Oct. 8. The $132 million complex is in the UTC district, behind the Mall at University Town Center, and is projected to host some 700,000 visitors a year. Like others, Mote SEA Vice President for Communications and Strategic Initiatives Kevin Cooper says Mote going out east is a follow-the-people move, for that’s where the population is growing. Cooper says Mote also plans to make a significant investment in the aquarium’s former City Island location in Sarasota, where it still has a presence, in expanded science and research facilities.
• The Sarasota Orchestra Music Center, which is projected as a new home for the organization on 5701 Fruitville Road, just west of Interstate 75 — 1.5 miles down from the Fruitville Library. The orchestra, which has been based downtown for decades, bought the 32-acre site for its new Music Center in early 2023 from an affiliate of Walmart for $14 million. The orchestra is planning an all-encompassing campus across three buildings on the site: — an 1,800-seat concert hall, a 700-seat recital hall and an education wing, all connected by a courtyard. Much of the campus will be for parking and 12 acres of wetlands. The orchestra has been raising money for the project, estimated to cost between $375 million and $425 million, for at least two years. 
• The Sarasota County buildings are in various stages of progress. The Planning Department’s one-stop building opened April 14, and around that time the new administration building was getting close to earning its certificate of occupancy, says Carolyn Eastwood, the county’s director of capital projects. The county building had been downtown, at 1616 Ringling Blvd., for some 50 years. County officials, says Eastwood, under the direction of commissioners, looked for a site to build a new administration building that had both “ease of access and proximity to I-75,” also citing population growth.