Theater closes its sale for $9.5 million

SARASOTA — The Players Centre for Performing Arts has closed on the sale its Sarasota theater for $9.5 million. 

An anonymous buyer purchased the theater and parcel at 838 N. Tamiami Trail.

The Players will now turn its attention to building a $30 million complex in Lakewood Ranch. "It's time for us to get going now," says Artistic Director Jeffery Kin in an article in the East County Observer, a sister paper of the Business Observer. He also says the $9.5 million will allow architects and builders to go full steam ahead.

The new complex probably won't open until 2021, but Kin says if everything goes perfectly, a fall 2020 opening is possible.

The buyer agreed to a two-year lease for $1 per year that will allow The Players to remain in its current home for most of the time the new complex is under construction. “Now, we are happy to say that we not only were able to close on the sale of our property, but that the new owner asked us to stay," says Kin in a press release. "So, speaking for the creative side of The Players, we are thrilled. We now have the money to invest in the design of our new building and we have a home until September of 2020."

Ian Black of Ian Black Real Estate handled the sale of the property with Jag Grewal of Ian Black Real Estate handling the sale for the buyer.