"There's a lot going on out there in Osprey, Nokomis, Venice, South Sarasota."
That's Mike DeGirolamo, co-owner of Five Nine Grill & Tavern, explaining in April why his Bradenton restaurant picked this stretch of the county for its second location. He's not wrong that the corridor is busy. But if you drive South Tamiami Trail or Beneva Road every week, you've probably noticed a gap between what gets announced out here and what you can actually walk into and order dinner at tonight.
Here's the short version. One new business has quietly been open since January. Everything else that's made news this year, the sports bar, the grocery chain, the mall rebuild, is still behind fencing, permits, or a lease agreement with no opening date attached.
What's Already Open
If you want proof that something on this corridor is actually running right now, it's a sandwich shop.
Capriotti's opened at 6320 S. Tamiami Trail, just north of Stickney Point Road, in January of this year. Franchisee Jason Cooper, who also owns the Bradenton location, brought the Delaware-born chain's signature Bobbie sandwich, slow-roasted turkey with cranberry sauce, stuffing and mayo, to a market with a lot of Northeast transplants who already know the name. It's a scratch-kitchen operation, not a warmed-up sub chain, and it's been serving lunch and dinner for about seven months now while three much bigger, much louder projects nearby have yet to seat a single customer.
That's worth sitting with for a second. The business that made the least noise is the only one you can actually visit.
The Sign That Jumped the Gun
You've probably seen it: a fresh sign outside the old Chili's building at 4131 S. Tamiami Trail, just south of Bee Ridge Road, announcing Ed's Tavern. The Chili's closed there last year after occupying that freestanding building of more than 6,000 square feet for years. A staff member at Ed's Tavern's Lakewood Ranch location confirmed to the Business Observer on August 3 that the new restaurant, known for its wall of TVs and a happy hour that runs 3 to 7 p.m. daily, is targeting an opening in 2027.
That's not a typo. The sign is up now. The doors open more than a year from now. Ed's Tavern already runs two locations in Lakewood Ranch and one in Parrish, and this will be its first foray into Sarasota County proper, with a fourth location planned for West Bradenton that a staff member described only as coming "soon." If you've been budgeting for wing night on 41, you've got some time to spare.
The Grocery Race Nobody's Finished Yet
Two grocery stories have been circulating about this part of the county, and neither one has a confirmed opening date attached.
Trader Joe's has been renovating the former Staples space on South Beneva Road near the Clark Road intersection, with permits filed in mid-2025 and interior work continuing into early this year. The projected window for that opening was spring 2026. Spring has come and gone. If you've driven past recently and seen an open sign, you know something the rest of us don't yet. The chain's broader Florida push is real, at least: analytics firm Placer.ai reported that Trader Joe's nationwide customer visits climbed 9.6% in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared with a year earlier, roughly triple the growth rate of the broader grocery category, which helps explain why the chain keeps adding Gulf Coast locations. The exact date this specific Beneva Road store turns its lights on, though, still hasn't been nailed down publicly.
Whole Foods is the bigger story, and also the slower one. It signed on as the anchor tenant for Phase One of the Sarasota Square redevelopment at U.S. 41 and Beneva Road, the site where the old mall stood for nearly five decades before demolition began in early 2025. The Phase One lineup, confirmed in a November 2025 announcement, includes:
- Whole Foods Market, anchoring the site at roughly 35,828 square feet
- HomeSense, taking 24,214 square feet next door
- Chipotle, CAVA and Joe & The Juice, splitting a combined 7,418 square feet
- Charles Schwab, opening a 5,163-square-foot branch
By May 18 of this year, developer Torburn Partners told the Business Observer that Phase One's commercial space was 88% pre-leased and buildings were under construction, with a 360-unit apartment phase from Woodfield Development expected to break ground this summer. Still, no individual tenant, Whole Foods included, has published a store-opening date. The lease is signed. The building isn't finished. Those are two very different milestones.
Here's how it actually breaks down if you're keeping score:
| Business | Location | Status as of August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Capriotti's | 6320 S. Tamiami Trail | Open since January 2026 |
| Ed's Tavern | 4131 S. Tamiami Trail (former Chili's) | Lease signed, opening targeted for 2027 |
| Trader Joe's | S. Beneva Road near Clark Road | Renovations underway, projected spring 2026 window has passed without a confirmed opening |
| Whole Foods | Sarasota Square, U.S. 41 & Beneva | Lease signed, Phase One under construction, no store-specific date announced |
| HomeSense, Chipotle, CAVA, Joe & The Juice, Charles Schwab | Sarasota Square | Same as Whole Foods |
None of this is a knock on the projects themselves. Big retail builds take time, and a nearly 100-acre redevelopment on the old mall footprint was never going to happen in a single construction season. It's just useful to know, the next time someone tells you the corridor is "already changing," that mostly what's changed so far is the paperwork.
What Never Left
While all of that gets built out, one thing on this corridor hasn't needed a lease, a permit, or a grand opening. Red Bug Slough Preserve, at 5200 Beneva Road near Bee Ridge, has been sitting quietly in the middle of it the whole time.
The county acquired the 72-acre property between 2000 and 2001 through the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program, and it's stayed almost exactly the same since: a network of unpaved but accessible trails, a rubberized loop of about 1.9 miles, a small playground, picnic shelters, and a fishing dock over the slough itself. It's free, it's dog-friendly on a leash, and depending on the week you might spot herons, turtles, or the occasional alligator keeping a respectful distance from the dock. You don't need a construction update to use it. It's been open the entire time everything else on this list has been under a tarp.
If you're the kind of person who's been eyeing the Ed's Tavern sign wondering when wing night starts, the honest answer is not yet, and probably not for a while. If you want a sandwich right now, Capriotti's has you covered. And if you'd rather just get outside while the rest of the corridor finishes catching up to its own signage, Red Bug Slough has been ready for twenty-five years.
This corridor keeps changing in fits and starts, and it's the kind of place worth paying attention to even when you're not planning to move. If you ever do find yourself curious about what's happening a few streets over, Susan Phelps has spent more than 40 years watching Sarasota grow one lease sign at a time, and she's always glad to talk through what's real, what's still on paper, and what's worth waiting for. Search Homes whenever you're ready, no rush required.
