Sarasota County was scheduled to cut the ribbon on its new $100.15 million administration center Tuesday, Aug. 25, completing a yearslong move away from its flood-prone downtown headquarters.

The ceremony was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. at 1 Apex Road, off Fruitville Road near Interstate 75, east of downtown. The county’s first regular commission meeting in the new building was scheduled to follow at 9:30 a.m.

The 121,160-square-foot facility houses county administration, the County Attorney’s Office, the clerk and comptroller, commission chambers, communications, human resources, libraries and historical resources, and the Office of Financial Management. It also includes a press room, Access Sarasota television studio, conference rooms, break rooms, a wellness center and 340 parking spaces.

Four funding streams paid for the project, according to the Business Observer: $43.45 million in general revenues, $25 million from the sale of the former county building, $22.7 million from the voter-approved Surtax IV infrastructure sales tax and $9 million in general government impact fees.

The price tag grew significantly from early estimates. When the county broke ground in September 2023, the project was budgeted at $74 million. The final cost of $100.15 million represents a roughly 35% increase.

Ajax and Tandem Construction built the facility. Fawley Bryant Architects and HOK designed it. The building was declared substantially complete June 5, and employees began moving in phases that month, according to a county spokesperson.

The move caps a process that began after a 2009 study and a 2015 analysis found it would cost $50 million to upgrade the old headquarters at 1660 Ringling Blvd. downtown. The county sold that property to Benderson Development for $25 million in 2021, leased it back and vacated it in October 2025.

Surtax IV, which contributed $22.7 million to the project, is a one-cent infrastructure sales tax approved by voters in November 2022, according to the Observer. It generates revenue from January 2025 through December 2039.

A budget session was held at the new building Aug. 21. The county’s regular commission meetings Aug. 25 and Aug. 26 are the first to be held at the Apex Road site.