Sarasota Station, a long-stalled workforce housing plan on Fruitville Road, officially broke ground Thursday morning, marking a major milestone for a project that has been more than a decade in the making and is now moving forward under Florida’s Live Local Act.

Planned for 2211 Fruitville Road and 300 Audubon Place next to Park East in downtown Sarasota, Sarasota Station will deliver 202 income-restricted apartments in what One Stop Housing has described as the City of Sarasota’s first Live Local Act project to break ground. The development will be built as two six-story L-shaped buildings with a separate clubhouse and outdoor amenities that include a basketball court, dog park and dog-washing station. The site connects directly to the Legacy Trail and is within walking distance of downtown.

The project is structured as 100 percent workforce housing, with rents restricted for 30 years. Eligibility will generally be limited to tenants earning between 60 percent and 80 percent of the area median income, with Sarasota Station’s unit mix including 45 studios, 79 one-bedrooms and the remaining units as two-bedrooms. Under Resilient SRQ funding requirements, 51 percent of the units will be reserved for residents at 60 percent AMI or below, with the remainder capped at 80 percent AMI. Based on 2025 HUD income limits, 60 percent–80 percent AMI  translates to annual income limits of $45,240 to $86,100 for households of one to four, with maximum rents (including utilities) ranging from $1,131 to $2,153 per month.

At the groundbreaking, City of Sarasota Mayor Debbie Trice framed the project as a direct investment in the workers who keep Sarasota’s economy running day to day. Sarasota Station, she said, “will house the people in Sarasota who really keep the city functioning.” She credited One Stop Housing CEO and managing partner Mark Vengroff for approaching the development as a public benefit project, not simply a profit play, and Sarasota County Commissioner Mark Smith described the effort to get the project across the finish line as the result of persistence and problem-solving.

The groundbreaking also highlighted the project’s role in a broader post-storm housing push being funded through federal disaster recovery dollars. Dave Bullock, speaking in connection with Sarasota County’s Resilient SRQ program, said the county administers more than $411 million in HUD funding tied to recent storm events. As of earlier this week, Bullock said, 14 multifamily affordable housing projects had been approved through the program, representing more than $82 million in county investment and translating to roughly 808 to 815 affordable housing units from the City of Sarasota down through the City of North Port. Sarasota Station’s 202 units, he said, account for a significant share of that total.

Financing for Sarasota Station has been described as a layered structure combining public funding, philanthropic support and private financing. The overall project cost has been cited at $30 million. Funding sources include $15 million through Resilient SRQ’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery allocation, along with an impact investment loan from Gulf Coast Community Foundation (GCCF) and a $250,000 grant from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation.

In remarks at the ceremony, Phillip Lanham of GCCF described Sarasota Station as a model for how philanthropy can participate in projects that require big capital stacks. “Sarasota station represents more than new buildings,” Lanham said. “It represents stability, opportunity and a future where the people who power our community can afford to live here.” Lanham said Sarasota Station is the first project supported through Gulf Coast’s impact investment program, which allows charitable resources to be deployed through loans that can be repaid and reinvested in future community solutions.

Matt Sauer of the Barancik Foundation connected Sarasota Station’s construction start to a longer-running affordability crisis, calling it “emblematic of the kind of project we need many more of to help dig us out of a hole that has been decades in the making.” Sauer cited an estimate that 47,000 households in Sarasota County spend 30 percent or more of their income on housing. “If you’re a business owner, your top resource is your people,” Sauer said. “Those folks need an affordable place to live.”

The redevelopment includes a distinctly Sarasota landmark: Bob’s Train, the Ringling circus railcar restaurant that has operated on the site since 2007. The restaurant and railcars will remain in place, and Vengroff has said the exterior will be cleaned up as part of the project. Plans also call for a second model train, built from salvaged materials, to sit near Fruitville Road and School Avenue as a marquee reading “Welcome to Sarasota Station.”

Sarasota Station’s long timeline is tied closely to Vengroff’s family history. The site was acquired more than 15 years ago by his late father, Harvey Vengroff, with the intention of developing workforce housing. At the ceremony, Vengroff thanked the “OSH [One Stop Housing] tribe” for carrying forward what he described as his father’s life’s mission. His mother Carol was among the crowd gathered at the groundbreaking.

The project is moving forward in a statewide policy environment that has changed dramatically since the site first became the subject of debate. Passed in 2023 and later amended, Florida’s Live Local Act was designed to spur affordable housing by offering developers two main incentives: expanded development rights and faster approvals. In many commercial, industrial and mixed-use zoning districts, the law requires cities to allow multifamily housing if a project includes a required share of income-restricted units for at least 30 years. It can allow projects to seek higher density and additional height than local zoning might otherwise permit, provided they meet affordability rules.

Sarasota Station is also only one piece of a larger redevelopment of the 7.88-acre property. One Stop Housing has said it sold roughly three acres of frontage to David Weekley Homes, which is planning approximately 70 townhomes. The remaining acreage will be developed as the 202-unit apartment community.

Construction is expected to take roughly two years. Sarasota Station is expected to open in the first quarter of 2028.