BBQ place exits east Manatee County for downtown Sarasota

After four years, Nancy’s Bar-B-Q is packing up its location at 14475 State Road 70 in east Manatee County and moving back to downtown Sarasota.

“I’m not leaving by choice,” owner Nancy Krohngold says. “Lakewood Ranch Commercial would not make an agreement with me to extend my lease.” 

Lakewood Ranch Commercial, a subsidiary of Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, is selling the property, on the northwest corner of Lorraine Road and State Road 70, according to the East County Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer. The buyer is CASTO, a real estate development firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with an office in Lakewood Ranch. CASTO has built several projects in the area, including Center Point at Waterside. 

“We’re going to put some money into the shopping center (Lorraine Corners) and update the exterior,” says Michael Chadwick with Casto. “It’s such a great intersection that’s obviously changed since Schroeder-Manatee Ranch built it 15 or 20 years ago, so we’re looking to update it and bring an exciting new restaurant to the area.”

CASTO won’t close on the property until August, so no leases have been signed. There is a lot of interest in the space, and Chadwick says by mid-September, CASTO should have a lease agreement in place. 

“Any tenant that goes in there, most likely, is going to gut the interior,” he says. “To do that, they’re going to need permits and a build out. They probably won't be open until May of next year.”

For now, the last day to eat at Nancy’s in Lakewood Ranch is June 30. Krohngold says it will take a few weeks to set up the new restaurant, but she hopes to open in the Rosemary District, outside downtown Sarasota, by on July 15. 

“We started in Lakewood Ranch with much less of a following than we had downtown. We were brand new to lots of people when we opened here on Lorraine Road, but we won over a wonderful customer base,” Krohngold tells the East County Observer “We regret that we can’t stay here and serve the Lakewood Ranch community.”

Before opening in Lorraine Corners, the restaurant had a smaller space on Lakewood Main Street in Lakewood Ranch. 

The move to downtown Sarasota is a homecoming. Krohngold lives downtown and opened her first brick-and-mortar restaurant there in 2011. For six years prior, Nancy’s was a catering business, a service that’s still offered. 

With a $295 minimum order, Krohngold says she will deliver to Lakewood Ranch. Otherwise, it will require travel for Lakewood Ranch residents to go to her restaurant. The new restaurant is at 1525 Fourth St.

This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.