When a car show, a 200-artist festival and the Holiday Night of Lights all land on the Circle within about five weeks, who decides what it costs to park for them, and when? The St. Armands Circle Association published its calendar months ago, and those dates are not moving. The terms for getting to them are still under review at City Hall.
Sarasota's parking hours are on a temporary schedule. The City Commission has said it will hold off on substantive changes until after the November election. Starting Oct. 28, a new department oversees enforcement. The busiest stretch of the Circle's year opens on top of all three.
The Dates
The association's season runs from Halloween to mid-December, with most of it on Saturdays.
| Date | Event | Hours | What applies that day under the current temporary hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Fright Night on St. Armands Circle | 5:30 to 8 p.m. | Street meters are enforced until 8 p.m. The garage is enforced until 2 a.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Ferraris on the Circle, sponsored by Ferrari Drivers SRQ | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Street enforcement starts at 10 a.m., an hour after the cars arrive |
| Sat. and Sun., Nov. 14 and 15 | St. Armands Circle Art Festival & Sidewalk Sale | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Sunday falls outside the temporary on-street paid schedule |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | 48th Annual Holiday Night of Lights | 5:30 to 8 p.m. | The event ends exactly when street enforcement does |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Porsches in the Park, 22nd annual, sponsored by Suncoast Motorsports | 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Same Saturday pattern as the Ferrari show |
The November festival fills Circle Park and South Boulevard of the Presidents. Your Observer reports that Howard Alan Events plans to bring about 200 artists. The same park hosts the association's Mat Pilates, Yoga in the Park and Zumba sessions from 8 to 9 a.m. Zumba is listed as a free class, and the association's events page carries the schedule for all three.
At the bottom of that calendar, the association adds that during events the City of Sarasota Parking Division may switch the garage to pay-on-entry, so cars can leave faster.
What the Curb Costs Right Now
The City of Sarasota's public parking page shows the current rules under the heading "temporary enforcement hours":
- On-street paid parking: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday, at $1.50 an hour
- City garages: 7 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday
- St. Armands Garage, 57 N. Adams Drive: first hour free only when you enter your license plate, $2 for hours one and two, then $1 for each hour after that. Level one is closed to parking from 6 to 10 a.m. on weekdays.
These hours are shorter than the ones the city tried this spring. In May, commissioners extended on-street paid parking to 8 a.m. through midnight. Sarasota Magazine, reporting with Suncoast Searchlight, wrote that the policy lasted just over a month. Merchants kept showing up at meetings to say the longer hours were sending customers to shopping districts with free parking outside city limits.
Why the Rules Stay Temporary
The reason lies mostly in the four-story garage at Adams and Madison drives. The city opened it in 2019 as a $15.6 million fix for years of parking complaints on the island. Before it was built, engineering firm Kimley-Horn had found the Circle about 320 spaces short of demand. The 484-space structure was projected to bring in $751,000 a year in hourly fees to cover its debt.
Sarasota Magazine's August report showed how far short it has fallen. The city still owes at least $12.1 million on the project, with debt payments of about $1.1 million a year scheduled through 2038. That annual payment is larger than the revenue the garage was originally expected to earn, even if it had met its projection. Merchants on the Circle cover about 23 percent of the debt through special assessments. The parking division owes the city's general fund more than $1.64 million, and about 91 percent of that is tied to the St. Armands Paid Parking Fund.
The same report gives the garage's busy-season case. Scott Macdonald's family has owned Crab & Fin on the Circle since 1978, and he took part in the merchants' push for more parking. He told the magazine, "During the height of the season, it's definitely been very beneficial, and especially for the amount of employees out there." On slow summer days, the report noted, whole rows of the garage sit empty.
This means the garage's finances depend on the very weeks on the calendar above. A full deck for the Ferrari show or the Night of Lights is the scenario the garage was built for.
What Gets Decided After November
At a workshop on Aug. 31, Suncoast Searchlight reported, the commission signaled it would not pursue substantive changes until after the November election, when at least one new commissioner takes office. The parking division faces a projected shortfall of about $2.6 million by 2028. Commissioners showed interest in three options:
- A 50-cent increase in hourly rates
- A valet service
- A program that lets businesses validate parking
None of the three has been adopted. They are the options the next commission will start from, and the art festival and Holiday Night of Lights both fall in the weeks just after the vote.
A separate change has a set date. Starting Oct. 28, the Sarasota Police Department oversees parking enforcement, taking it over from the Planning Department. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that City Manager Karie Friling made the decision in an Oct. 1 memo, with a stated focus on employee safety and customer service.
Arriving Without a Space to Find
Because the parking rules may change, it helps to know the free trolley. Sarasota County's Breeze Route 78, the Bay Runner, connects downtown Sarasota with St. Armands Circle, Lido Beach and Ted Sperling Park at no charge. It runs every day of the year, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, according to the county's specialty routes page. On Friday, Dec. 4, it keeps running three hours after the Night of Lights ends.
The city also lists Veo scooters and bikes as an option. Rentals are allowed from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, and riders must leave them in designated parking zones on St. Armands, as shown on the city's transportation services page.
The Tenants Signing On
Businesses are still leasing space on the Circle while the parking question waits, and several have chosen this season to arrive.
St. Armands Jewelers, at 7 N. Boulevard of the Presidents, took over from Jewelry by Cole, a fixture since 1974, under new owner Mia Eylon. Your Observer reported in August that the shop was already serving customers and planned a grand opening for early November, between the Ferrari show and the art festival.
Sloan's Ice Cream has leased 1,450 square feet at 380B St. Armands Circle and is loosely aiming for the first quarter of 2027. Longboat Key News named the franchisee as Sarasota resident Sohrab Khadivian. It also counted Sloan's as the seventh sweets shop on a ring you can walk in 10 minutes. The others are Kilwins, on the Circle since 1985, Ben & Jerry's, Settimi's Gelato, Big Olaf, River Street Sweets, and the Chocolate Emporium, which soft-opened at 28A S. Boulevard of the Presidents in late June.
Pinchers, a Phelan Family Brands seafood concept, signed a lease at 300 John Ringling Blvd. In June, the company told the Business Observer it was "shooting to be open in October."
Shore is the longest-range of the four. Restaurateur Tom Leonard plans to rebuild at the corner of Boulevard of the Presidents and Madison Drive, with a shop and casual cafe on the ground floor and the restaurant upstairs. On Oct. 7 the plan went back before the city's Development Review Committee. There, Your Observer reported, questions came up about how floodproofing affects the allowed building height and whether a second-floor dining balcony may extend over the sidewalk. The city says the applicant's next step is to resubmit. The June filing estimated buildout in the fourth quarter of 2027.
Every one of these businesses depends on the same foot traffic the garage was built to serve. The first full test of the season is Saturday, Oct. 31, when Fright Night runs from 5:30 to 8 p.m. and street meters stop at 8.
For many of our clients, the Circle is part of the week, and we follow the details that shape it, from parking schedules to new storefronts. If you would like to talk about how St. Armands and the islands around it are changing this season, Roger Pettingell and the Pettingell Professionals team are glad to share what we are seeing. Contact Us.
