Attainable housing plans generate most of discussion
Following a discussion with the project team members over how best to ensure the designation of a specific number of attainable housing units on the redeveloped Southgate Mall property, the Sarasota City commissioners voted unanimously on Aug. 8 to direct staff to transmit to the Florida Department of Commerce a proposed amendment to the city’s Comprehensive Plan involving the plans proposed by Benderson Development Co. of University Park.
The commissioners ended up rejecting a change that the members of the Sarasota Planning Board had negotiated with representatives of the company when the Planning Board addressed the application in early May.
Instead, the city commissioners won agreement of Todd Mathes of development for Benderson Development that the proposed amendment will require that, five years after the Certificate of Occupancy has been issued for the first residential project on the site, if Benderson has not already made 10% of the housing units “attainable” to lower-income residents, Benderson will have to catch up to that threshold.
Company representatives will work with City Attorney Robert Fournier to ensure that that part of the amendment has been modified before it goes to the state, Philip DiMaria, a certified planner with the Kimley-Horn consulting firm in Sarasota, who is a member of the project team, told the commissioners.
David Smith, manager of long-range planning for the city, explained during the Aug. 8 City Commission hearing that the Planning Board members agreed that the first sentence of the proposed Action Strategy 1.10 in the Comprehensive Plan amendment, regarding site-specific limitations, should call for at least 20 of the first 400 housing units constructed on the mall property, and then rented or sold, to be priced as attainable.
That strategy would memorialize Benderson’s proffer that 10% of the housing units would be designated attainable, he said.
In accord with a policy that the City Commission approved in 2022, at least one-third of those units must be made available to households with annual incomes at or below 80% of the Area Median Income set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); and no more than one-third would have to be available to households with incomes between 100% and 120% of the Area Median Income.
The Area Median Income for the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is $97,000 this year.
The original version of the proposed, modified Action Strategy 1.10 said that the first 500 housing units constructed had to include at least 50 that were priced to be attainable, Smith continued on Aug. 8.
The Planning Board members changed that number to 450 after negotiating with Benderson representatives during the Planning Board hearing, Smith said.
The attainable units, he added, would have to keep that designation for at least 30 years.
Smith also noted that Benderson is seeking a density of 25 dwelling units per acre, so the maximum number of housing units on the mall property would be 848. Staff’s suggestion was that 85 of the first 450 or 500 housing units — whichever number the City Commission settled on — should be priced as attainable, as 85 would be the minimum number of such units at maximum buildout of the redevelopment.
Benderson also is seeking to modify the Metropolitan Regional land use classification of the site, which is Regional Shopping Center, so it includes this language: “and Development consisting of Retail, Office, Residential, Mixed-Use Development and/or Support Facilities associated with Mixed-Use Development” at Crossings at Siesta Key Mall.
Although many area residents still refer to the property as Southgate Mall, Crossings at Siesta Key Mall has been the formal name for the past several years.
Smith did tell the commissioners that staff believes “the site is really appropriate … for a mixed-use development,” based on a number of factors, including access to transit. Sarasota County Breeze Transit has a major transfer station on the property.
The property comprises 545,723 square feet of gross floor area, he noted, while the land totals 1,478,862 square feet, or slightly less than 34 acres. “They could do a significant amount of building on the site,” Smith added of Benderson.
In May 2022, a Benderson affiliate paid $25.1 million for the property. Then, in the late spring of 2023, the company filed a preliminary application with the City of Sarasota, seeking to change the future land use designation of the site to Urban Mixed-Use, which would allow the company to construct residential units there.
Commissioner Debbie Trice had expressed concern about more greenspace for the proposed new development, Smith continued. However, he said, when he read through the city Zoning Code, he did not find any regulation that could be used to require greenspace on the property.
If the proposed Comprehensive Plan amendment ultimately is approved, Smith told the commissioners, a zoning text amendment will be needed to lay out all of the details required for the site development. Staff could work with Benderson, he indicated, on providing a certain percentage of greenspace, as Benderson’s proposed Comprehensive Plan amendment includes language that refers to “support facilities associated with mixed-use development.” Those could include civic spaces, greenspace and perhaps an urban plaza, Smith added.
A vision for a community gathering place
DiMaria, the Kimley-Horn planner, explained to the City Commission that approving the transmittal of the proposed amendment to the Department of Commerce would be merely the first step in a process that Benderson plans to transform the mall into a mixed-use development akin to Naples’ Mercato or Tampa’s Hyde Park Village.
The Mercato’s website says, “Sophisticated. Fun. Vibrant. Mercato is an all-day experience for Naples residents and visitors. Spend your days shopping in the sunshine and nights out dining, drinking and enjoying entertainment with friends. With sophistication and a sense of community at every corner, Mercato will make your day, and brighten your night.”
Following the state Department of Commerce review of the proposed Comprehensive Plan amendment — provided that no serious concerns are conveyed to city staff — the commission will have to conduct a second public hearing on the proposal. A supermajority vote — at least four of the five commissioners approving it — would be necessary to enact the amendment.
DiMaria noted on Aug. 8 that the mall property is located at the intersection of Bee Ridge Road and U.S. 41, “on really the southern gateway of the city, hence the term ‘Southgate.’ ”
The facility center opened in 1956 with a strip center, he continued; that “was anchored by two grocery stores — Publix and Winn-Dixie.
“The current tenant mix is varied,” he added, with Macy’s as an anchor. “There are a few tenants that do a really wonderful job attracting business,” DiMaria said, citing Connors Steak & Seafood and the Cinebistro theater complex.
While the mall has seen turnover in recent years, he pointed out, “the success of retail on Siesta Drive — on the north side … — indicates that there is a market demand for more lifestyle-quality tenants …” Multi-family housing and condominiums are on the east side of the mall property, he added.
The attainable housing issue
During the commissioners’ discussion with the Mathes of Benderson Development and DiMaria, Vice Mayor Jen Ahearn-Koch was the first to ask why the company had settled on just 10% of the housing units being priced as attainable. She noted that the policy the commissioners adopted in 2022 requires that 11% of the overall units be priced as attainable for the developer to achieve a residential density bonus.
Mathes explained that the original concept for redevelopment of the site called for higher residential density.
“We know we don’t know what the perfect number [of units], timing [of construction], phasing is,” Mathes said, “because we’re at the high policy level. … It was a vibrant mall when I moved here,” he continued. “Now it needs to be something else, so we think an important ingredient is housing.”
Then Mathes pointed out that if the company is to ensure housing will be constructed on the site, to help make the new development “a vibrant mixed-use place, we need the folks who participate in developing housing and the markets to be wanting and willing to build housing here and to get the returns and meet the expectations that they could elsewhere.”
He noted that Benderson also owns the Glengarry Shoppes — including the Best Buy store — about 1,000 feet away from the mall property, on the west side of U.S. 41. Although the company has no plans to sell the Glengarry Shoppes and the Best Buy center, Mathes added, a developer of housing might be more interested in that property than in the mall site. Therefore, he continued, Benderson is trying to design a concept that would put the Southgate Mall property “in a roughly level playing field from a market expectation standpoint.”
He was uncertain, he added, whether 11% would be the appropriate number for attainable housing among the units on the mall site. “I can’t tell you whether that’s a number that will work in the future,” Mathes added, “or whether it will work today.”
Later, he noted that it typically takes 18 months to a year to lease a new residential building, and Benderson would not begin a second structure until after the first one was full.
He emphasized the timing factor. “It’s about how can we get this property started without bearing the cost associated with those early units.” Not everything Benderson has planned for the property will be built at once, Mathes pointed out.
Further, he explained, “The less of the affordable [housing] that we have to take on in the early first phase of the project, the less expensive the project will be at its first phase. What we know,” he added, “is that the first phase” will not give the company a financial return. “We have to get to the next phases to start to realize those returns. We’re trying to push those costs to later days when the project starts to … have some vibrancy and we start to really deliver the total place.”
Mathes also reminded Ahearn-Koch that the company will be responsible for building the new stormwater systems and reconstructing other infrastructure as it demolishes buildings on the property.
Both Ahearn-Koch and Commissioner Trice voiced worry that residential units ultimately could be constructed without any attainable housing, given Mathes’ statements.
At one point, Trice also said, “I have a major problem with the changes that the Planning [Board] made!” The requirement for 20 of the first 400 units to be attainable, she said, would be akin to creating “a low-income enclave.” She proposed that the commissioners strike that sentence and use the original figure of 500 in what had been the first sentence in the Benderson proposal.
Commissioner Erik Arroyo suggested that the City Commission modify the amendment to call for Benderson to “catch up,” if necessary, on the 10% requirement for the affordable housing units five years after the project was fully built.
Long-range Planning Manager Smith pointed out that it likely will take 10 to 15 years for the redevelopment to be completed.
Finally, following more discussion, the commissioners settled on the motion that they ended up approving, with Arroyo having made it and Commissioner Kyle Battie having seconded it.
The hearing lasted approximately 90 minutes, with only two members of the public offering comments. Both offered their support for the project. The first, Rae Anne Malone, is a Southgate community resident. The other, Jen Stutler, said she lives about 200 feet “from one of the most affected intersections, which is School Avenue and Siesta Drive.”
The meeting was rescheduled from Aug. 5 because of the flooding of many city streets as a result of the rain that fell from Tropical Storm Debby.