Downtown theater sells property for over $9.5M

SARASOTA — The board of directors of Sarasota's The Players Centre for Performing Arts approved a contract to sell its current property.

The property is at 838 N. Tamiami Trail in downtown Sarasota.

Terms of the cash offer, released Jan. 16, are confidential, as is the identity of the buyer, pending an official closing. But according to a press release from The Players, the negotiated amount was higher than the property's listing price of $9.5 million.

The Players listed its property in 2016. It also announced plans to build a facility in Lakewood Ranch with a 480-seat main stage auditorium, a 125-seat black box theater and a 100-seat cabaret theater with dining.

The new location will be the main campus of The Arnold Simonsen Players Studio — the education arm of the organization.

“We are extremely excited about this opportunity,” says The Players Centre Managing Director and CEO Michelle Bianchi in a statement about the contract to sell the property. “We are now on track to build simultaneously with Schroeder-Manatee Ranch's Waterside Place in Lakewood Ranch.”

The Players will form a transition team to vacate its current property in summer 2019. It's also looking for a temporary location in Lakewood Ranch until phase one of the new facility is completed.