Sarasota County offers key downtown corner for sale

Sarasota County is offering to sell a nearly 1-acre tract at a key downtown intersection for a minimum $3.1 million.

The land at 20 N. Washington Blvd. had been floated as the site for a 120-room Kimpton Hotel in 2014 and again in 2015, but those plans failed to reach fruition.

The county has owned the property containing 86 surface parking spots since 1978. The site, at U.S. 301 and Main Street, is directly across from the Sarasota County Lynn Silvertooth Judicial Center and is near the Center Pointe office building, the recently renovated Hollywood 11 movie theater and several proposed residential projects.

“It’s zoned Downtown Core, which allows for developments of up to 10 stories and 50 units of residences per acre,” says John Harshman, president of commercial real estate brokerage firm Harshman & Co. Inc., which the county has retained to sell the site.

“There are a wide variety of uses available, too, including residential, office, hotel and retail.”

Harshman adds that unlike in 2015, when the county last offered the property for sale, the county has eliminated the stipulation that a buyer replace or preserve the 86 parking spaces.

“The last time the property was offered for sale, any buyer had to agree to provide a set number of parking spaces,” he says “But this time, the property is being offered without any future encumbrances.”

County officials did not return telephone calls for comment regarding the timing of the offering or why the parking provision was eliminated.

Bids on the site are due to the county by 5 p.m. June 19 , according to an offering memorandum.