Nearly nine years after Marie Selby Botanical Gardens unveiled a sweeping plan to remake its downtown Sarasota campus—and after a public debate forced it back to the drawing board—the project’s second phase is beginning to rise.

Selby Gardens announced Tuesday that it completed a $41.9 million tax-exempt bond sale in July, started vertical construction and raised $59.7 million, or 98 percent, of its $60.9 million fundraising goal for Phase Two.

The bonds provide money for construction while donors fulfill multiyear pledges and represent borrowed money—separate from the nearly $60 million Selby says it has raised for the phase through its capital campaign.

Selby says the offering drew orders from 15 investors, totaling roughly 10 times the amount of bonds available. R.W. Baird underwrote the sale and the Capital Trust Agency issued the bonds. 

Phase Two will include a new conservatory complex, a 2,760-square-foot learning pavilion and new gardens and landscaping. Selby broke ground on the work in December 2025 and now expects it to be complete in November 2028, later than its earlier target of late 2027.

The centerpiece will be a 32,605-square-foot conservatory designed to hold more than 20,000 plants from the institution’s research collections. Visitors can currently see less than 5 percent of those plants. The new complex will put nearly all of them on public display.

The conservatory will use polycarbonate panels instead of conventional greenhouse glass. The lighter material reduces the amount of structural support required and the system was tested in 2026 under simulated hurricane conditions. The organization is seeking trademark protection for the design, which it calls the Selby System. 

The campus will also continue using renewable energy and systems that collect and reuse water, extending features introduced during Phase One.

Phase Two is the latest chapter in a master plan that has transformed its downtown campus—and changed since Selby first unveiled it in October 2017. Its original $67 million proposal called for a five-story parking structure topped by a restaurant, new research and visitor facilities and a 50 percent increase in garden space.

By 2019, the projected cost had ballooned to $92 million and the plan had become the subject of several city hearings. Nearby residents objected primarily to the height and scale of a proposed 75-foot-tall parking structure with a rooftop restaurant, traffic around Orange Avenue and U.S. 41, and noise and commercial activity from the 185-seat restaurant.

The Sarasota City Commission rejected a land-use change required for that version in a 3-2 vote in November 2019. Commissioners who opposed it also cited traffic concerns, compatibility with surrounding neighborhoods and whether or not Selby had justified the project’s intensity. Supporters argued that consolidating parking would create more garden space and help preserve an important cultural institution.

Selby returned with a scaled-back plan. It reduced the parking structure’s height by more than 40 percent, cut the restaurant to 110 seats, moved it to the ground floor and limited its operating hours to match the gardens'. The revised proposal also avoided the comprehensive plan change sought in the first application.

The City Commission approved the revised plan 4-1 in early 2021. Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch cast the dissenting vote, continuing to raise concerns about traffic, scale, events and the plan’s compatibility with city policies. Phase One broke ground that June and opened in January 2024 with a welcome center, plant research facilities, a 450-space parking garage, restaurant and garden shop.

Phase Two encountered a narrower dispute in 2025 over tree removal. City staff reported that its site plan proposed removing 102 of the 241 trees documented in the project area, although 79 were in garden display areas exempt from portions of the city’s tree-protection requirements. The plan included the removal of seven grand trees.

Selby says it has now raised more than $127 million, in total, for the first two phases of the master plan, including nearly $10 million for its endowment. Private philanthropy accounts for 99 percent of that total.

Once Phase Two is complete, a third and final phase is expected to restore the campus’ two principal historic buildings, connect its walking paths and strengthen its seawalls. 

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