The six-story former Sarasota County Administration Building was engineered to support nine stories. More than four decades after it opened, Benderson Development is exploring whether to finally add them.

City commissioners voted unanimously Monday to give Benderson greater freedom to transform the vacant building at 1660 Ringling Blvd. Conceptual renderings show the dated concrete structure recast as a glassy office building with ground-floor retail, landscaped entrances and several additional floors.

The commission voted 5-0 on both a comprehensive-plan amendment and companion rezoning. The votes don’t approve a final design. Benderson hasn’t submitted a site plan, and the architecture, parking, traffic circulation, access and drainage will undergo further review.

But the decisions resolve a zoning line that ran through the existing building and allow Benderson to advance its plans for Class A offices with shops or restaurants below.

“We do intend to build Class A office space with ground-floor retail that supports the building,” Benderson executive Todd Mathes told commissioners.

Benderson presented the offices as a needed counterweight to downtown’s residential growth. The city’s Downtown Core classification seeks an overall mix of 75 percent nonresidential and 25 percent residential uses. Benderson also cited vacancy rates below 5 percent at several major Class A office buildings downtown.

The building occupies a 2.88-acre site near Ringling Boulevard and Orange Avenue. Benderson bought the property in November 2021, but Sarasota County continued using the building until October 2025.

The zoning problem dates to 2005, when the city placed approximately 58 percent of the building in Downtown Core and 42 percent in Downtown Edge. Downtown Edge allows no more than five stories, leaving part of the existing six-story structure legally nonconforming.

Monday’s votes moved approximately one acre from Urban Edge to Downtown Core on the city’s future-land-use map and rezoned the same area from Downtown Edge to Downtown Core. The change places the entire existing building under Downtown Core rules, which allow as many as 10 stories.

Benderson said the concrete frame remains sound and was originally engineered to support nine stories. The developer plans to preserve that frame, replace the exterior and expand upward instead of demolishing the building. Its renderings depict a substantially taller structure with large windows, active ground-floor spaces and new pedestrian entrances. The images remain conceptual and could change before a site plan is filed.

Benderson hasn’t announced when it expects to submit that plan, begin construction or open the redeveloped building.

Lower-intensity zoning will remain along Morrill Street as a buffer between the project and Laurel Park. Permitted heights step down from as many as 10 stories near Ringling Boulevard to five stories farther south and no more than three stories within 100 feet of the neighborhood’s residential zoning.

Benderson said the acre being changed is approximately 314 feet from existing development south of Dolphin Street. Morrill Street and lower-intensity land would remain between it and the Laurel Park neighborhood.

That buffer reflects a long and sometimes contentious negotiation with nearby residents.

Benderson’s original 2023 proposal covered more property, including a parking lot south of Morrill Street within Laurel Park and another parcel east of Pine Place. Roughly 200 people attended an early community workshop, and Laurel Park residents organized against allowing commercial development to push farther into the residential neighborhood. Benderson ultimately removed those properties and limited the current request to the former county building site north of Morrill Street.

Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch, who participated in the design charrette and neighborhood meetings, said the discussions “were not always a pretty situation,” but credited Benderson with confronting residents’ concerns.

“It wasn’t avoided, it wasn’t worked around, it wasn’t hidden, it wasn’t sugarcoated or put flowers on top of,” Ahearn-Koch said. “It was really directly addressed.”

The lack of organized opposition Monday was notable. No Laurel Park Neighborhood Association representative spoke against either request—a sharp departure from the response to Benderson’s original plan.

“The silence from the very vocal Laurel Park neighborhood today confirms that they appear to be happy with the project as amended,” Mayor Debbie Trice said.

Vice Mayor Liz Alpert also noted that no one opposed the project during the comprehensive-plan hearing, calling that “sort of amazing” and pointing to Benderson’s communication with residents, the neighborhood and Architecture Sarasota.

One nearby resident did raise a concern during the subsequent rezoning hearing. Kimberly Colgate, who lives at The Q condominium on Morrill Street, questioned differences in the project’s traffic figures and warned that drivers could use narrow neighborhood streets to reach Benderson’s parking. She asked the city to revisit the traffic analysis and consider a “Do Not Enter” sign at Pine Place and Morrill Street.

City staff said parking and circulation will be evaluated when Benderson submits its site plan. The city’s current analysis found that nearby roads and intersections could accommodate the potential development without additional traffic improvements.

That analysis tested a possible project containing 182,000 square feet of offices and as much as 38,000 square feet of retail. Those numbers were used to study potential traffic and aren’t an approved development plan.

Benderson agreed to limit the project to 38,000 square feet of retail. It also can’t add housing within the portion of the existing building covered by the rezoning. Residential development, however, could still be allowed elsewhere on the property under Downtown Core zoning.

The commission added another condition requiring Benderson to fill sidewalk gaps along Rawls and Morrill streets in coordination with the city.

Architecture Sarasota supported the changes. One of its board members, Howard Davis, whose organization occupies an adjacent building and hosted Benderson’s design charrette, told commissioners the existing structure “has not and will not win any architecture awards.” He said Benderson has been searching for an architect capable of delivering a transformative design.

“We’re going to be transforming one of the ugly ducklings in Sarasota into a prize,” Davis said.

What that prize ultimately looks like remains unsettled. Monday’s votes establish what Benderson may pursue; the final building must still take shape through design and site-plan review. But the developer now has the approvals it needs to pursue a taller office-and-retail redevelopment while leaving the residential property south of Morrill Street out of the project.

Benderson Development is a family-owned commercial real estate company founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1949 and now based in Manatee County. Its national portfolio includes more than 1,000 properties spanning 40 states. Locally, Benderson is best known for the University Town Center district, including The Mall at University Town Center and the surrounding shops, restaurants, hotels and offices. Its other prominent Sarasota County projects include Siesta Promenade, The Landings, Crossings at Siesta Key and Cocoplum Village Shops in North Port. The company is also planning a 52-acre commercial district with roughly 500,000 square feet of retail, dining and services in Wellen Park.