County Administration Center in downtown Sarasota suffers extensive damage wrought by Hurricane Milton

No public admission allowed, staff says

The Sarasota County Administration Center stands at 1660 Ringling Blvd. in downtown Sarasota. Image courtesy Sarasota County

Prior to the start of an Oct. 16 hearing before 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Hunter Carroll, regarding a lawsuit filed against the county earlier this year, Carroll took a couple of moments to ask Deputy County Attorney David Pearce about damage to the Sarasota County Administration Center in downtown Sarasota.

Pearce responded that Hurricane Milton had “walloped the building,” damaging the roof and the “chiller plant” on the roof, which provides cooling for the structure. The fifth and sixth floors suffered extensive damage, Pearce added.

He was participating in the hearing via Zoom, on behalf of the county in the litigation. Pearce told Carroll that he was using the home of a relative for the session, as his home still had no power.

County staff members had been told that they would be “out of pocket” for three to eight weeks, Pearce added. However, he pointed out, he was not certain at this time that repairs to the structure would be undertaken, given the fact that a new county Administration Center is under construction on Fruitville Road.

That new facility is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2025, Genevieve Judge, public information and community outreach manager for the county, told The Sarasota News Leader in an Oct. 16 email, in response to a News Leaderinquiry.

In an earlier email to the News Leader, Jamie Carson, director of the county Communications Department, provided this statement about the downtown structure’s situation, again, at the News Leader’s request for information following the court hearing: “The Sarasota County Government Administration Building, located at 1660 Ringling Blvd., was extensively impacted by Hurricane Milton. We’re working to remediate the building and assessing its future use. To ensure the continuity of government for our community, we’ve implemented plans to relocate personnel and equipment during the remediation process. As for now, the building remains closed to the public, and we’ll keep the community updated as we continue to assess and complete the remediation process.”

In November 2021, the commissioners seated at that time approved the sale of the Administration Center in downtown Sarasota to Benderson Development Co. of University Park for $25 million. Along with the six-story facility on Ringling, Benderson bought two adjacent parking lots as part of the deal.

The county has been paying the company $1 million a year to lease the downtown Sarasota property until the new complex has been completed.

The lease agreement specifies, “Landlord shall be responsible to maintain the roof and structure.”

Both County Commission meetings next week — scheduled for Oct. 22 and Oct. 23 — will be held at the county’s R.L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice. It stands at 4000 S. Tamiami Trail.

In late August, with air conditioning and sound system problems having arisen in the Anderson building, County Administrator Jonathan Lewis announced that future commission meetings would be held in the Ringling Boulevard facility.

Renovations have been underway for a variety of county offices in the Anderson structure since the new South County Courthouse opened in 2022.

On Sept. 28, 2023, ground formally was broken for the new Administration Center, which is under construction at 1 Apex Road, near the Celery Fields Regional Stormwater Project.

These are views of the new County Administration Center under construction on Fruitville Road. Images courtesy Sarasota County

Growing concerns about staying in the building

During their board retreat in December 2019, the commissioners agreed that they needed to move county offices out of the Ringling Boulevard building. Staff already had projected significant future expenses to keep that structure in good enough condition for it to continue to function.

Later, Deputy County Administrator and Chief Financial Management Officer Steve Botelho presented to them estimates for necessary renovations and maintenance that added up to as much as $49 million over 20 years.

These are the maintenance and renovation estimates for the building at 1660 Ringling Blvd., as presented to the commissioners in May 2020 Image courtesy Sarasota County

Before he had to step down from the board in November 2022, because of term limits, former County Commissioner Alan Maio of Nokomis acknowledged a number of times that he had urged his colleagues to pursue construction of a new Administration Center because of the age and increasing need for maintenance of the building in downtown Sarasota.

As chair of the commission in 2021, Maio passed the gavel to then-Vice Chair Christian Ziegler to make the Nov. 15 motion to sell the downtown structure to Benderson.

Referencing the December 2019 retreat discussion, Maio said, “Apparently, I was more demonstrative than I recall [in saying], ‘Get us out of this building!’” and pounding on the table. Those were “probably the smartest words I have said in seven years,” Maio added on Nov. 15, 2021, referencing his tenure on the commission.

Then Maio pointed out, “Go up to our sixth floor, in case you think we’re working in the Taj Mahal, and see what I call five upside down umbrellas, 8-foot by 8-foot squares, channeling the water that’s leaking through the roof, funneled through a hose into giant containers. There is no longer any time to wait on this.”

The structure standing at 1660 Ringling Blvd. was built in 1973, the Sarasota County Property Appraiser’s Office records show. On Dec. 31, 1993, the county paid telecommunications company GTE Florida Inc., based in Hillsborough County, $5,588,000 for the land and the building, the Property Appraiser’s Office and Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller’s Office records say.

For years, the sixth floor served as the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

However, the Emergency Management team began pressing for a new EOC more than a decade ago in recognition of the fact that the structure was rated to withstand only a Category 3 hurricane. The team contended that all county staff members needed to be assured that they were utilizing a building rated for Category 5 when facing the potential of a major disaster.

In May 2012, the county commissioners directed administrative staff to proceed with design work, permitting and construction for a new Emergency Operations/911 Center on a 1301 Cattlemen Road site that they had been considering since February 2011.

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