Hugh Culverhouse Jr. wants to build at a highway intersection, next to Oscar Scherer State Park.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: September 19, 2025
Host: Before the end of this year, the Sarasota Planning Commission and then the county commission will be weighing a 1,000-unit project prominent developer Hugh Culverhouse would like to build on agricultural land. Ramon Lopez has the details.
Ramon Lopez: A major mixed-use real estate development on 122 acres at I-75 and State Road 681 is in the works, the last parcel to be developed in Palmer Ranch.
The land is currently zoned for agriculture use and requires county approval for rezoning. The development will include 500 residential units, a gas station, retail outlets and two hotels.
The original blueprint unveiled at the first virtual neighborhood workshop held a year ago said there would be 350,000 square feet of commercial space. But project officials revealed at the second workshop on September 11 that the commercial area has been drastically cut back to 85,000 square feet.
Hugh Culverhouse Jr
The tract, dubbed Parcel 6C, is owned by Hugh Culverhouse Jr. The applicant listed is Marathon Residential LLC. We hear from Marathon’s Demitri Economou.
Demitri Economou: Vision for this parcel is represented by 500 multifamily units, which would be in two separate projects, 85,000 square feet of commercial and 300 hotel rooms and a lot of open space representing around 70% of the rezone boundary.
RL: Economou said no one has stepped forward to build the five or six story hotels, and there’s no firm commitments for the gas station and retail outlets.
Attendees at the second workshop voiced concern about the potential development’s stormwater management standards, environmental impacts and traffic implications.
Representatives from Stantec said the development would meet or exceed Sarasota County’s 100-year storm standards of 10 inches of rain in 24 hours, and the environmental impact would be limited.
Stantec engineer Kris Wilhoit and Stantec principal planner Matt Lewis said flooding won’t be an issue.
Kris Wilhoit: It’s designed for the 100-year—for the 10-inch. It’s really been proven that, even the larger storms that we’ve just recently had, it’s been successful. But one of the key components to any system is maintenance. I know Palmer Ranch Master Association is really striving to do a good job at that. It’s going to either meet or exceed the stormwater management requirements.
Matt Lewis: You can see that there’s a significant increase in open water stormwater management. The amount of stormwater management set aside for open air lakes has been increased. The site as it currently exists is unimproved pasture with no engineered stormwater management system. This is the last increment—the last piece of the puzzle, so to speak, in a master stormwater management system that serves the other 29 increments. The site will be fully designed to meet both SWFWMD and the more stringent Sarasota County requirement.
RL: Lewis also said traffic congestion also won’t be a problem.
ML: The commercial square footage went from 340,000 down to 85,000, which significantly reduced the traffic impacts of this site. Both Honore and State Road 61 currently are operating within acceptable level service standards and are anticipated to continue to operate within acceptable level service standards with the addition of traffic from this project.
RL: Neighborhood workshops are typically the last step before a developer files an application for a project with the county.
Stantec VP Jim Paulmann provided a timeline for when the Sarasota County Planning Commission and then the County Commissioners will rule on the project.
Jim Paulmann: At this point, we anticipate that the Planning Commission hearing will be held in mid October, and the county commission hearing that will follow will likely occur no later than December, October, November, December of next year, a little over a year from now, we would commence construction. The buildout is not specifically known, but we would anticipate that it would occur within two years after commencing or or perhaps longer. It could be anywhere between two to five years of building.
RL: Paulmann said the new unnamed real estate development will fit in with neighboring communities.
JP: We’ve demonstrated with all of the open space, strategically locating those buildings that are greater than 35 feet in height, placement of vegetation along project boundaries and so forth are those things that we do to ensure the project’s compatibility with the neighborhood. It’s being developed in a manner that is consistent with each of the existing and previously developed and completed phases within Palmer Ranch.
RL: If approved, this development would fill out the Palmer Ranch development. It would then have a total of 14,000 residential units, 88 acres of commercial space and 550,000 square feet of office and light industrial space.
This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.
