The ring of the Circle looks finished again. There are 30 new trees and 4,600 shrubs, annuals and groundcovers, chosen for salt tolerance and a light need for irrigation. Sidewalks have been rebuilt, and new light bollards line the curb where Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton left damage. The City of Sarasota says the restoration is complete, at an estimated cost of $500,000, and it has applied for federal reimbursement.
Head east toward the mainland and you hit the cones. FDOT's work on the John Ringling Causeway, S.R. 789 between Bird Key Drive and Sunset Drive, is still active. The state's current estimate for finishing construction is early 2027. That puts every big night on the Circle's calendar this season inside a road project. The Circle is ready, and the route most people use to reach it is the part that still isn't.
The Circle Finished First
The City's restoration covered more than landscaping. Parks and Recreation worked with Public Works to repair sidewalks and the Circle's electrical and lighting systems. The City describes the result as bringing the space "back to and even exceeding its former condition."
The businesses kept moving as well. Your Observer reported on Nov. 1 that the Circle now has more than a dozen restaurants. That ranges from Columbia, which opened its Cuban-Spanish restaurant here in 1959, to Flambo, a Trinidadian restaurant at 40 S. Boulevard of the Presidents. The Observer also reported a coffee and dessert shop on the way. Pinchers says it is moving its Lakewood Ranch restaurant to 300 John Ringling Blvd., with the same family and the same team. Chocolate Emporium opened this summer at 28 S. Boulevard of the Presidents, its first Sarasota location, according to the Herald-Tribune. We covered the Circle's restaurant turnover in September in The Restaurants on St. Armands Circle Didn't Disappear. They Changed Their Names.
St. Armands Circle Association Executive Director Rachel Burns told the Observer that "there's a lot of opportunity for small restaurant owners to find a niche for something original."
The Road In Is the Unfinished Part
Your Observer's coverage of the Oct. 7 joint meeting between the Sarasota and Longboat Key commissions put the causeway project at $12.3 million. It extends bus-only lanes, adds dedicated bike lanes, improves drainage, resurfaces the road and adds new traffic signals. FDOT's project page names the signalized intersections as Sunset Drive, Golden Gate Drive and Bird Key Drive. The work also raises the seawall cap near Sunset Drive and moves palms and shrubs from the eastern end of the causeway to medians closer to the Circle.
FDOT's latest weekly update shows how much is still open:
- Curb and sidewalk going in along the north side of the Sunset Drive intersection
- A shared-use path being built on the north side of Bird Key
- Drainage pipes on the north side of Bird Key Drive, with crews then moving to the south side of Sunset Drive
- Traffic signal mast arms going up at Bird Key Drive while the old drilled shafts come out at Sunset Drive
- Seawall cap replacement along the south side of the road, east of Golden Gate Point
- Preparation for road widening along the south side of Sunset Drive
FDOT says milling and paving "will resume at a later date." The speed limit on Gulfstream Avenue and the causeway stays at 35 mph, and fines double when workers are present. Bike lanes are closed, and cyclists are directed to posted detours. Most work happens during the day, with occasional night work and the noise from backup alarms and pumps that comes with it.
For anyone who usually bikes over the bridge to the Circle, the closed bike lanes matter more than any lane closure for cars. They will stay closed until the new dedicated bike lanes open.
The Season's Big Nights Land in the Work Zone
The St. Armands Circle Association has posted a full calendar for the season. The 2026 dates all fall before FDOT's early-2027 estimate, and the January car show lands in the same early-2027 window.
| Date | Event | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Sat.–Sun., Nov. 14–15 | St. Armands Circle Art Festival & Sidewalk Sale | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | 48th Annual Holiday Night of Lights | 5:30 to 8 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | 22nd Annual Porsches in the Park | Starts 9 a.m. |
| Sat., Jan. 16, 2027 | Exotic Cars on the Circle, on a new date | 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
The Association's events page lists all four. The art festival this weekend uses St. Armands Circle Park and South Boulevard of the Presidents, the same block where Flambo and Chocolate Emporium are located.
Holiday Night of Lights is the evening when the causeway carries the most people at once. The City's event page describes last year's program, held Dec. 5, 2025. It included carols, a Santa parade, the lighting of a 60-foot tree, holiday entertainers, photos with Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and shopping discounts. This year it falls on a Friday evening, inside a construction corridor where the new signals at Bird Key Drive and Sunset Drive are still being built.
The Ways Around the Cones
Two pieces of city infrastructure take some pressure off the drive, and neither is new.
The 78 Bay Runner is a free open-air trolley funded by the City of Sarasota. It connects downtown Sarasota with St. Armands Circle, Lido Beach and Ted Sperling Park. Sarasota County describes the route as focused on "reducing traffic congestion over the John Ringling Causeway," which is the stretch under construction now. The details that matter this season:
- It runs from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, so it is still running when Holiday Night of Lights ends at 8 p.m. on Dec. 4.
- Thanksgiving Day hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Christmas Eve follows the same 8-to-8 schedule.
- The trolley stops only at designated stops marked with a Bay Runner sign or a Breeze route 78 sign. Riders pull the cable to request a stop.
- The Breeze Rider App tracks the trolley and its estimated arrival.
The St. Armands Garage at 57 N. Adams Drive holds 480 cars, plus 23 surface spaces next to it, according to the City's garage page. The City's published rate structure works like this:
- The first hour is free, the second hour is $2, and each hour after that is $1.
- A flat $5 rate applies during special events.
- City garages are free on Sundays and holidays.
- The garage is gateless, so drivers pay within 15 minutes of entering through the Passport app, ParkMobile or a pay station, or they risk a citation.
- Posted hours at St. Armands are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.
On event days, the Association says the City Parking Division may switch to pay-on-entry to speed up exits. The festival Sunday, Nov. 15, falls on a day when City garages are normally free.
After the Causeway, the Little Ringling Bridge
The causeway is the first of two projects on this route. The Little Ringling Bridge, which carries traffic between the causeway and the Circle, is set for replacement. Your Observer reported that design is underway at a cost of $4 million and that the bridge itself is estimated at about $74 million. Construction is not expected to start soon.
The same route matters to the north. The Observer noted that south-end Longboat Key residents reach the mainland over the New Pass bridge, through the Circle and across the causeway. Longboat's citizen surveys rank traffic as the top issue year after year, most of all from January to April. Construction on the north end of Longboat has its own timeline, covered in On Longboat's North End, the Drive Changes Before the Storefronts Do.
The plan, then, is a finished causeway with bike and transit lanes and new signals, followed by a new Little Ringling Bridge. Until the causeway is done, the season's crowds will cross in a construction zone. The free trolley the City funds to reduce causeway traffic runs every day of the year, and the restored Circle is at the end of the route.
We keep up with changes like these around St. Armands because the roads, garages and calendar shape how a home on the Keys works week to week. Our St. Armands neighborhood page has more on the area, and if you're planning your own timing around the busy season, RSTS Group can walk you through what this stretch of road means for your plans.
