New Benderson Business Park projected to bring 1,500 jobs to North Port

Posted by author March 3, 2025 Jobs

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Business park is designed to appeal to national companies with specific logistical needs, such as unloading 200-foot-long trucks

NORTH PORT – North Port and Sarasota County economic development leaders recently toured the second phase of Benderson Development’s North Port Business Park which could to bring 1,500 new jobs to the county’s largest city.

The tour of the first two buildings of a planned six-building campus – including a 73,000-square-foot space once used as a fulfillment center by Tervis Tumbler – came after the board of the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County held a morning meeting at the North Port branch campus of Sarasota Technical College.

The school at 4445 Career Lane is on the southwest side of the Toledo Blade Boulevard exit off of Interstate 75, while the business park, which is anticipated to have 678,000 square feet of Class A Dock High industrial space, is on the southeast side.

Mark Curran, leasing director for industrial, office and warehouse space in the Southeast for Benderson Development, said that interstate proximity was one of the factors Benderson sees as key for this type of industrial location.

Concrete tilt-wall construction and “dock-high” access for tractor trailer trucks – including 200-foot-long super load trucks – to load and unload, 30-foot high ceilings and ESFR sprinkler systems that quickly quell fires were among the other features big national companies look for in business/warehouse space, he added.

“Big companies came into town, there was no place to go,” Curran said.

Benderson had owned land in North Port for more than two decades.

When did Benderson first target North Port for a business park?

In 2018, Curran talked with Randy Benderson, CEO of Benderson Development, about the opportunity to develop a business park at the interchange.

The North Port/Charlotte County area “did not have anything like this,” Curran added.

Benderson is leasing space in two buildings, with the other four slated to be available on April 1.

In addition to the land cost, Curran estimated that Benderson has invested $60 million in the industrial park.

Among the new tenants mentioned by Curran are Lansing Building Products, World Electric Supply and Wharton-Smith, an engineering firm.

They join a longtime existing tenant, Guardian Pharmacy of Southwest Florida.

What does the new facility mean for North Port?

As North Port continues to transition from the bedroom community first envisioned by General Development Corp. when it created the city in the late 1950s to its current 104-square-mile city limits and more than 94,000 people, the Benderson facility will bring jobs – 1,500 new jobs to start.

Josh Ewen, vice president for economic development for the Sarasota County EDC, said those jobs are key to developing a diverse economy in North Port.

“The more we all focus on creating a diverse industry here, we’ll end up creating jobs and lowering the commute for residents of North Port that really want to live, work and thrive here,” Ewen said.

Michael Meerman, North Port Economic Development Manager noted that’s 500 new jobs with the space already filled and 1,500 job additions.

“Anytime you have job additions, that’s noteworthy.”

“These are not low paying jobs, these are good paying jobs,” noted Lori Barnes, assistant development services director for the city of North Port. “Ninety percent of the workforce commutes out of the city of North Port – 1,500 jobs is huge.”

North Port Development Services Director noted that neither Guardian Pharmacy nor Wharton-Smith would have called North Port home without the type of space offered in the Benderson warehouse.

“Wharton Smith, that’s engineers, CAD drawers, project managers – highly skilled people who are now working in North Port and they’re going to spend money in North Port,” she added.

New center seen as a key to economic growth

While the rapid population growth to 100,000 people makes North Port more attractive to retailers, the fact that 90% working residents commute also means that residents are more likely to shop and socialize outside of the city limits – referred to as “retail leakage.”

Ray noted that because of sales tax receipts and other data tracked by the EDC as well as the state of Florida, the city’s retail leakage is estimated to be more than $700 million a year.

The definition of “retail” includes stores, restaurants, craft breweries and entertainment venues such as indoor golf or Top Golf.

“That’s a huge number, when you say that to retail developers, their eyes light up because they see opportunity,” Ray said, “That’s one of the things that we’re promoting to developers.

“We have a market here that’s built in that’s having to drive distances to get their needs met and they can find a new market here.”

She noted that when retail business developers learn about that $700 million figures at trade shows, “They look at us and say, ‘How did we not know you were here?’”

Recently, North Port was ranked seventh in MoneyGeek’s analysis of the most affordable and safest small cities in the U.S., named one of the best places to start a business, and recognized as Florida’s No. 2 most livable city.

But until last August – when the City Commission passed a long-overdue rewrite of the city’s unified land development code – some of those businesses may have not been able to find anywhere in the 104-square-mile city to easily locate.

Case in point, Charlie Foxtrot Brewing had been eyeing North Port to open but ultimately opted for Port Charlotte because the zoning did not exist.

“We definitely have it now,” Ray said, referring to zoning for a business like a brew pub. “This isn’t old North Port.”

Ray noted that the new land development codes received heavy criticism during public meeting and public meetings but ultimately cities must change.

“There is no status quo,” Ray said. “Status quo is an illusion, as a city you’re either going to grow and progress or you’re going to decay.

“You constantly have to be changing,” she added “That reinvestment is critical.”