A downtown Sarasota property valued at more than $15 million has hit the market.
Sarasota Military Academy's five-acre Orange Avenue campus is being marketed byMichael Saunders & Company Commercial Real Estate as a redevelopment option under the Live Local Act.
Located at 801 N. Orange Ave., the campus borders downtown Sarasota's Rosemary District and Gillespie Park. The land alone is valued at more than $17.1 million, according to the county property appraiser’s website.
The existing structures add another $14.1 million in appraised value, though those structures would likely be demolished to make way for development.
Sarasota Military Academy officials plan to consolidate the high school and middle school programs on the site of SMA Prep at 3101
Bethel Lane, just north of Fruitville Road, with an eye toward opening the new campus in time for the 2028-29 school year.
A rare, large downtown Sarasota parcel hits the open market
Lee DeLieto Jr., a senior commercial advisor and broker associate with MSC Commercial Real Estate, said the expected sale price for the SMA Orange Avenue campus is far higher than the appraised land value.
That is in part because it is being marketed with the maximum value of being developed under the Live Local Act, which would provide both increased density and attainable housing units.
"For the person acquiring the property, this is the largest piece of property that I’m aware of that has been marketed in the downtown Sarasota area for some time,” DeLieto said.
Unlike some recent private transactions, such as the sale of the old Zenith insurance building, which is the future site of Waldorf Astoria Residences Sarasota, the SMA campus is on the open market.
“The open market is where it needed to land,” DeLieto said. “We have a bevy of buyers that we’ve been talking to but we told them all that this was going to the open market for the pure aspect of buyer and seller demand.”
The campus, which extends from 8th to 10th Street on Orange Avenue, is in Sarasota’s Rosemary District and carries with it Downtown Edge zoning, as well as being part of the Rosemary Residential Overlay District.
The city of Sarasota has 10th Street slated for a Complete Street makeover, as well as a roundabout at the intersection of 10th Street and Orange Avenue.
Just a few blocks west on 10th Street, the Bay Park Conservancy is developing the Bay, Sarasota’s 53-acre “one park for all” along the Sarasota Bayfront between Boulevard of the Arts and 10th Street.
Mixed-use structures on the site could be 18 stories tall.
“If you go about seven stories above the buildings that are immediately to the west of this property, you’ve got a perfectly unobstructed view of the bay,” DeLieto said.
Why is the SMA campus being sold?
The Orange Avenue campus has been home to the public charter school since it opened in August 2002 under the guidance of Headmaster Dan Kennedy.
Before that, it was owned by the Diocese of Venice and served as the campus for St. Martha Catholic Middle School from 1950 until 2002, when its new campus opened at 4380 Fruitville Road.
A separate SMA Prepcampus opened in August 2014 for students in grades 6 to 9 on a 10.5-acre campus at 3101 Bethel Lane, north of Fruitville Road.
Kennedy noted that consolidation of the two campuses was always a long-range goal and the “Fruitville campus” was designed with an eye toward expansion.
It already has a regulation football and soccer field, as well as a gym.
“When I opened the prep school, the idea was to have a close collaboration between the high school students and middle school students,” Kennedy said. “Due to the distance between the campuses, that became difficult.”
Tom McElheny, chairman of the Sarasota Military Academy Board of Directors, told the Herald-Tribune that the current plan is to build a four-story academic building for the high school students.
The charter school currently serves about 1,000 students, with 60% of those in ninth through 12th grades.
McElheny recommended consolidation last November, and the board approved it June 23 and voted to put the Orange Avenue campus up for sale.
McElheny detailed the benefits of consolidating the schools on one campus in a June 26 Herald-Tribune column.
In it, he noted that “The proposed consolidation would strengthen SMA’s future by improving campus safety and security, lowering operating costs, modernizing learning spaces and redirecting limited resources to academics, girls’ and boys’ athletics, and community engagement.”
Proceeds of the sale of the Orange Avenue campus are anticipated to fund much of, if not all, of the cost to build the new high school.
McElheny said the same construction firm that built the middle school, The Starling Group, operated under the auspices of Fred M. Starling, will design and build the new high school facilities.
“The issues that come with construction are all being handled by someone we trust and appreciate,” McElheny said.
Earle Kimel primarily covers local governments in Sarasota County as well as land development and environmental issues for the Herald-Tribune. Follow him on Facebook, and X. He can be reached by email at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Rare downtown Sarasota property valued at $17 million hits market
