S'macks, Sarasota Magazine to move into State Street building

At the groundbreaking for the project at 1500 State St., the development team shared a list of five commercial tenants for the mixed-use downtown building.

By David Conway
| 11:59 a.m. September 26, 2016

Joe R. Hembree, Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown, city commissioners Suzanne Atwell and Liz Alpert, Elita Kane, Janis Krums, Chris Gallagher, Mark Kauffman, Tom Jackson and Kelley Lavin pose at today's groundbreaking.

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Although the project team behind the building at 1500 State St. just broke ground on the development this morning, the group has already shared a preliminary list of the tenants slated to move into the downtown property.

Those tenants are: S’macks, a fast-casual burger restaurant, Sarasota Magazine, a local lifestyle publication, Re/Max Platinum Realty and Optional Art Fine Jewelry.

The mixed-use project will also include 20 luxury condominium units, 10 of which have already sold. The remaining units, between 734 and 1013 square feet, are priced from $386,000 to $505,000.

A sign displays the future tenants of the 1500 State St. development at the project's groundbreaking today.

The project is comprised of two different properties purchased from the city of Sarasota. In 2014, commercial real estate firm Hembree and Associates bid $688,000 for the 5,041-square-foot parcel at 1500 State St., next to the State Street parking garage. In February of this year, the city agreed to sell Hembree and Associates an adjoining 5,049-square-foot property along Lemon Avenue for $260,000.

Hembree and Associates plans to build a six-story building on the State Street parcel. S’macks is moving into the ground-floor space at the corner of State and Lemon, and the condos will occupy the third through sixth floors.

Re/Max and Optional Art will relocate from their current downtown storefronts to occupy the ground floor of the two-story Lemon Avenue property, located next to Pineapple Park. Sarasota Magazine is moving into the second floor of both buildings, which will be connected by a walkover bridge.

Before the city struck a deal with Hembree and Associates on the Lemon Avenue property, a group of residents fought against the sale, arguing it infringed on the public park space. Chris Gallagher, a designer with project architect Hoyt Architects, said the project team was working to ensure the building matched its surroundings and enhanced the neighboring park.

“We’re trying to tie it into the fountain,” Gallagher said. “It’s going to feel like the park is all tied together.”

Alex Floethe, a managing partner at S’macks, said he was excited for the restaurant to expand beyond the current location at 2407 Bee Ridge Road. The new location is a homecoming of sorts, as the concept for S’macks was inspired by The Smack, a drive-thru restaurant located on Main Street in the 1950s.

Tom Jackson, president of contractor Jackson and Associates, addresses the audience at today's groundbreaking for the 1500 State St. project.

Floethe believes S’macks will help fill a void downtown as the number of residents and employees in the heart of the city continues to grow.

“There’s nothing like this downtown,” Floethe said. “There’s no quick-service burger place.”

Jackson and Associates is serving as the contractor on the project, and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is marketing the condominium units.

Joe Hembree, the president of Hembree and Associates, said there is still 5,000 square feet of commercial space in the development left to lease out. Hembree is targeting a completion date of November 2017 for construction on the project.