Sarasota News Leader: Benderson breaks contract (again) Also: Englewood real estate fiasco

Two remarkable stories from the April 20 Sarasota News Leader (SNL):

Benderson Development, which acquired 42 acres in 2015 at the Fruitville / I-75 exchange at a paltry price, has just received not only another year's extension on a contract going back to 2015 (it now needs do nothing until 2019), but it also seems to have gotten a FREE PASS to degrade the market it was supposed to attract. According to the SNL:

The latest amendment also deletes language in the original contract that said, “Benderson shall use its best commercially reasonable efforts to market and lease the Property to Class A Building tenants.” 

The original commitment, renewed with both previous extensions, was described in 2015 by the Observer:

The prolific developer aims to build a multibuilding light industrial Class A campus totaling between 400,000 and 500,000 square feet of industrial, manufacturing and office space.

Now apparently that's no longer part of the plan.

Is Benderson going to come back after three contractual delays to disclose what it has planned for the Fruitville Initiative is warehouses and a truck depot?

Benderson Development affiliate granted another delay

Benderson Frutiville initiative

According to the Building Owners and Managers Association International, Class A space refers to the “[m]ost prestigious buildings competing for premier office space users with rents above average for the area. Buildings have high quality standard finishes, state of the art systems, exceptional accessibility and a definite market presence.”

Class B structures: “Buildings competing for a wide range of users with rents in the average range for the area. … Building finishes are fair to good for the area and systems are adequate, but the building does not compete with Class A at the same price.”

Class C buildings: Compete for tenants that require “functional space at rents below the average for the area.”

Englewood property purchased for a park sold at $1.5 million loss

A second SNL story finds that the County purchased land in Englewood, and is now selling it for $1.5 million less than it paid in 2007:

“When it comes to the management of our county properties … the way it’s been done in the past is at least not acceptable to this commissioner."

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Two planning stories from the News Leader

Sarasota News Leader -

Draft of county’s Unified Development Code available on county webpage so public can offer comments

Goal is to combine Sarasota County’s zoning and land-use regulations in a much more user-friendly documentFile photo

The Fort Lauderdale consulting firm working with Sarasota County staff to update the county’s zoning and land use regulations into a Unified Development Code (UDC) has produced its first draft, the county has announced.

That document is available on the UDC Project webpage, a news release says. Anyone may provide comments directly on the UDC Project webpage or by submitting them to the Planning and Development Services Department at planner@scgov.net, the release points out. Those comments will be addressed by the consultant as the project moves forward, the release notes.

More . . .

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Those concerned with the Quad parcels near the Celery Fields wonder why Sarasota County is in such a rush to sell them (after 20 years of doing nothing). Meanwhile, in Englewood, parcels once purchased by the County for use as a park are now for sale at a deep discount:

Sarasota News Leader - snippets:

County to lose more than $2.3 million on two Englewood parcels it bought years ago for a park — if it can sell both at board-approved prices

The first parcel, located at 50 Southwind Drive, was purchased by the Sarasota County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department for $1,250,000 in 2007, “with the intention of creating a neighborhood waterfront park in conjunction with an adjacent site purchased separately by the Englewood CRA [Community Redevelopment Area],” a staff memo said.

That adjacent property was the land at 800 W. Perry St., for which the Englewood CRA paid $2,203,656, a separate staff memo explained.

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“I think the lesson to be learned here is we don’t purchase property as a park without consulting with the neighbors on the other side to see if they want a park,” Commissioner Nancy Detert added. “That’s what I’ve found, historically has been the situation with this. It’s really hard to imagine that we’ve had [the land] this long, years, and years and years,” she continued, “and it hasn’t appreciated.”