Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/203490
Sarasota News Leader November 1, 2013 Page 44 owning [them]. To say we have a big piece of and believed he could provide the board with land and should put buildings on it, I don't more recent numbers than Gable had been think is the right way to do it." able to find. When Commissioner Christine Robinson asked if he had appraisals of the two county parcels that would be freed up for sale if the 11-story tower were built, Gable said no recent figures were available. The only ones he could find, he added, covered just slivers of those parcels — about 100 to 120 feet of depth in them. When Patterson asked about the cost of building the four lower structures compared to the expense of the tower, Gable responded that while his figures were "very preliminary ones," he would estimate about $47 million for the four buildings and $58 million for the tower. The taller building would necessitate more One parcel encompasses 4.1 acres, while the "hardening," Gable pointed out, so it would other is 2.7 acres, according to the PowerPoint be able to withstand hurricane-force winds. presentation Gable showed the board. "I guess I don't see the immediate urgency However, interim County Administrator Tom to make the decision," Commissioner Nora Harmer told the commissioners later that he Patterson said of the site plan, "and I don't had checked with the county's real estate staff want to make the decision until I have the A graphic shows benefits and challenges in regard to constructing an 11-story Sheriff's Office tower with parking on the Cattlemen Road site. The tower would have 175,000 square feet; the 150,000-squarefoot figure was provided in error, county staff said. Image courtesy Sarasota County