City Receives $3 Million Offer For Fruitville-Beneva Land

Sarasota now has a rival offer to consider on a piece of prime property on the northeast corner of Fruitville and Beneva roads. 

Lakewood Ranch-based Commodore Realty is offering a $3 million cash-only deal for the property that the Sarasota City Commission agreed to sell to Benderson Property Development for $1.4 million. The Benderson deal is still in contract negotiations, and was approved at the June 4 meeting while this new offer came forward at the commission’s Monday, July 2 meeting.

Commodore would focus on a multi-family residential, mixed-use development that would also include out parcels to have restaurants or banks on 11.1 acres, said Brian Lichterman, a real estate developer and planner representing Max Puyanic, chief-executive officer of Commodore Realty. 

"We are offering to the city a far superior land use," he said. "It is a critically important, strategic intersection in the largest parcel of unified acreage left along the city's portion of the Fruitville corridor." 

Larry Fineberg, executive director of Benderson, told the commission during prior meetings Benderson would plan to build a 110,000-square-foot shopping center, and those negotiations where often tense, as was the June 4 discussions were. 

The city received two appraisals for the property — one at $1.4 million and another for $3 million due to work needed to construct a bridge across a drainage canal. The sale would also be contingent on a comprehensive plan amendment to accommodate Benderson's plan. 

During the June 4 meeting, Commissioner Shannon Snyder said the city could sell the property for more when the market improves while Commissioner Paul Caragiulo was not sure if Benderson could garner necessary approvals for its site plan. 

Litcherman contends that that a new shopping center would be at "a commercially saturated intersection" where his client's proposal would "more than double the assessed value" of the property.

Commodore also developed and owns the Sarasota Crossings shopping Center on Fruitville Road where a Publix, Office Depot and h.h. gregg are located.