On Thursday, Nov. 5, Whole Foods will open a 42,000-square-foot store at the Marketplace at Heritage Harbour, 7295 State Road 64 E in east Bradenton. It will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the first 300 customers in line get a Bradenton tote bag, according to the Business Observer. It will be the chain's 40th Florida location and its first in Manatee County.
The Whole Foods planned for the old Sarasota Square Mall site on U.S. 41, next to Palmer Ranch, is still part of an active construction site. The first phase of the redevelopment is projected to deliver in the first quarter of 2027, and no source has given the grocery store its own opening date. The site is going up in stages, and the stores built for quick errands come before the gathering spaces and the homes.
Phase One Is an Errand List
The project's published renderings show a central plaza with shaded pedestrian corridors. Phase One covers about 90,000 square feet of what the developers call "daily-needs offerings," and it was 88% pre-leased as of the developer's update this spring. The Business Observer reported the pre-leasing figure on May 18, 2026.
Here are the Phase One tenants, grouped by the trip each one replaces:
- Groceries: Whole Foods Market
- Home goods: HomeSense
- A quick lunch: CAVA, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Joe & the Juice
- Errands: Charles Schwab, Warby Parker
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune covered the restaurant and retail additions in May, describing them as national chains joining the grocery anchor. Every name on that list is built for a stop of twenty minutes or less. None is the kind of place you'd plan an evening around. In early 2027, the site will mostly be a better-stocked version of the shopping trip Palmer Ranch already makes on U.S. 41.
The Square Everyone Pictures Is the 2028 Part
The walkable town center comes in Phase Two. That stage adds about 160,000 square feet of street-oriented shopping and dining around a central lawn meant for events, outdoor dining and everyday gathering, and it's expected to open by the end of 2028. Jamestown, Torburn Partners' partner on the project, describes its targets as premier fashion brands, chef-driven restaurants and boutique fitness operators.
So far, no Phase Two tenant has been named publicly. What's public is a category list and a quote from Jamestown head of retail leasing Adam Schwegman, who said in the Mann Report that the firm is "targeting operators that deliver a sense of discovery and a unique point of view."
Phase Two isn't the end, either. Spectrum News reported on Aug. 28 that the master plan includes a third construction phase whose plans aren't final. Overall, the redevelopment covers nearly 100 acres and is planned for 530,000 square feet of retail, dining, wellness and experiential concepts, plus office space and 1,200 residential units.
| Stage | What it includes | Timing, as last reported |
|---|---|---|
| Phase One | About 90,000 sq ft: Whole Foods, HomeSense, CAVA, Chipotle, Joe & the Juice, Charles Schwab, Warby Parker | First quarter of 2027 |
| Phase Two | About 160,000 sq ft around a central lawn; first apartment building | By the end of 2028 |
| Phase Three | Part of the master plan; details not finalized | No date announced |
| Costco and JCPenney | Separate freestanding stores, accessible during construction | Open now |
The Apartments Are Financed but Not Confirmed in the Ground
The residential piece has the most loose ends. Torburn Partners, which bought the mall in 2021, sold a 4.5-acre parcel to Woodfield Development for a rental community with garage parking. On June 29, the Business Observer reported that Sarasota Square Apartments had secured construction financing from PNC Bank and was expected to break ground "in the coming weeks."
The reports don't agree on size. The Business Observer puts the project at 355 units, while the Mann Report's August item says 360. Both describe a groundbreaking as expected, and neither reports that it happened. Spectrum News described the first apartment building as part of Phase Two, which puts new residents on the site around the same time as the central lawn and not before it.
Until those apartments are built, the people shopping at Phase One will mostly be driving in from the surrounding neighborhoods.
What Stays Open, and What This Month's Road Work Touches
The current routine stays largely in place during construction. Spectrum News confirmed that Costco and JCPenney still operate as freestanding stores that remain accessible while work continues. The same report noted that some residents of a Palmer Ranch community have raised concerns about traffic and noise over the next two years.
For the rest of October, the work most likely to affect a drive is utility work, not the redevelopment itself. Sarasota County's road closure listings show:
- Sarasota Square Boulevard at Potter Park Drive: a force-main tie-in scheduled Oct. 19–28, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Beneva Road between Circus Boulevard and Parkland Avenue: overnight pipe installation scheduled Oct. 5–23.
- Sarasota Square Boulevard between Beneva Road and McIntosh Road: overnight utility boring that ran through Oct. 9 and has now ended.
The county also lists overnight work at Honore Avenue and Ranch Road through Oct. 18. The county updates these notices as crews reschedule, so the dates above are the scheduled windows as of this week.
Clark Road Has Been Filling the Gap
The neighborhood-restaurant role Phase Two is being designed for has partly been taken up by independents along Clark Road and nearby, with openings and moves over the past year.
- El Greco Kitchen & Market opened April 7 at 4035 Clark Road in Expo on Clark Plaza as a fast-casual follow-up to the former downtown El Greco Cafe, according to the Herald-Tribune.
- Masō, a 36-seat, reservation-only restaurant that mixes a supper club and a speakeasy, opened in February at 2881 Clark Road in Merchants Pointe, the Herald-Tribune reported.
- Smoke & Fire BBQ is moving from 4571 Clark Road to share space with Brew Life Brewing at 5767 Beneva Road in Beneva-Clark Plaza. The Herald-Tribune's Oct. 6 update didn't give a move date.
- JavaCone, a coffee and ice cream café that will also serve breakfast and lunch, has been announced for 5537 Palmer Crossing Circle, with no opening date reported as of May.
Between now and 2028, a typical week near the old mall site will probably mean groceries and a quick lunch at Sarasota Square from early 2027, with dinner out a few minutes up Clark Road. Twin Lakes Park at 6700 Clark Road adds one more date to the calendar. Its free UF/IFAS demonstration garden tour runs Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. to noon, the same week the Potter Park Drive tie-in starts.
Projects like Sarasota Square can affect how nearby homes are valued and how buyers think about a location, especially when the timeline is spread over several years. If you own in Palmer Ranch and want to talk through how the phases line up with your own plans, the team at Vincent Lamaida keeps track of these updates as they come out. Schedule a Complimentary Coastal Consultation, and we'll go through what's confirmed, what's only projected, and what each stage could mean for your property.
