Sarasota office building comes to market

The Arkansas-based owner of the three-story office building in Sarasota being vacated by the Herald-Tribune Media Group and others early next year has officially put the building on the market for lease.

Stephens Inc. has retained commercial brokerage firms JLL, in Tampa, and Ian Black Real Estate, of Sarasota, to market the 72,400-square-foot building.

Completed in 2005, the building was designed for 350 employees and had been the Herald-Tribune's headquarters since it opened. Earlier this year, the publishing company signed a lease to move into smaller quarters next door to the 1741 Main St. building sometime in early in 2017. The Herald-Tribune's staff and space needs have been shrinking steadily in recent years amid heightened competition.

Brent Miller, a JLL executive vice president and head of the firm's Tampa office, says the entire building will be available as tenants Iberia Bank and cable television station SNN-6 also are leaving around the end of the first quarter of next year.

“We're excited about the prospects of having a clean slate and about being able to reposition the building,” Miller says. “We're hopeful for a large, single user, but we'll subdivide the building for multitenant if we need to. We think the quality and cache of the building and its size are big advantages, as is the downtown Main Street location.”

Steve Horn, an Ian Black partner, will be working with Miller on the property.