If you drive the corridor regularly, you have watched the old Sarasota Square site change shape all year. This month it changed shape in a big way: the longtime AMC theater building came down in August, opening up the heart of the SSQ redevelopment for the next stage of construction. Here is where things stand as fall touring season gets underway.
SSQ: The Site Is Wide Open Now
With the theater demolition complete, the 96-acre property on South Tamiami Trail reads as one big active construction stage, with Costco and J.C. Penney staying put and doing business through it all. The plan has not changed, just the skyline: roughly 1,200 residences rising alongside the retail, with about 300,000 square feet of shopping and dining in the first phases and around 530,000 square feet at full build-out. Seeing the site cleared makes the vision a lot easier to picture.
Phase 1 Paces for Early 2027
The anchor lineup is set: a Whole Foods Market of about 36,000 square feet and HomeSense lead Phase 1, with Chipotle, CAVA and Warby Parker among the tenants already signed. New restaurants and shops are pacing to begin opening at the start of 2027, which means the grocery-and-dining piece arrives before the full build-out. For buyers, that is the detail to pay attention to: the walkable, amenity-rich center of the corridor is getting closer every month, and it sits minutes from the Palmer Ranch communities.
The Original DRI Gets Its Final Increment
Away from the mall site, the paperwork side of the pipeline moved too. Sarasota County has now approved the final increment of the original Palmer Ranch DRI, the last of the increments that have guided growth across the area for years. That closing piece adds roughly 500 homes, 300 hotel rooms and 85,000 square feet of commercial space near the future I-75 and SR 681 interchange. It is a long-horizon story, like the larger Palmer Ranch East plan that heads to state review, but together they show where the arc of this region is pointed.
What This Means for Touring Season
On the ground, fall is the ideal window to see it all. Model homes are open every day across the corridor, the mornings on the Legacy Trail are crisp again, and the pump track and skate facility at Scherer Thaxton Preserve is still pacing to debut before the end of the year. New construction, led by Talon Preserve, remains the strongest story out there, and the neighborhoods are at their most inviting right now.
If you are weighing a move to the corridor, this is the season to tour it, while the fall phase releases are rolling out and the mornings are made for it. Let’s plan a route through the communities that fit your wish list. I would love to show you around.