Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is putting up a new conservatory complex at the south end of Palm Avenue, and it won't open until November 2028. For the two years in between, the 15-acre Downtown Sarasota campus at 1534 Mound Street is set up so that a regular visitor barely sees the work. The Orchid Show is up, Lights in Bloom is on the calendar, the restaurant serves lunch every day and the bayfront stays open. The biggest change is one you can't see from the paths. Roughly 20,000 plants from the living collection are now stored somewhere else.
For anyone in Hudson Bayou, Harbor Acres or along south Palm Avenue, Selby works as the garden next door. That makes it worth knowing how this build was set up to stay out of the way, and why it's likely to keep doing so.
This Time the Fence Is Inside the Garden
Phase 1 was harder on visitors because it happened at the front door. That work, finished in January 2024, built the parking structure and restaurant on Mound Street, a new welcome center and the Steinwachs Family Plant Research Center. The historic brick Augusta Block pavers at the southern end of Palm Avenue were pulled up, stored and then put back once construction was done.
Phase 2 sits on a different part of the property. Selby broke ground in December 2025, finished permitting and site work, and started vertical construction this summer. The building area is fenced, and everything you use to get in and get fed was finished in the last phase. Selby President and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki described the arrangement to Your Observer in August:
"We have our welcome center. We have our restaurant. All of our amenities are open and the Phase 2 footprint for construction is fenced off and the rest of the gardens are open. The way it is today is the way it will be throughout construction."
The new building also has a specific spot on the street map. Jerry Sparkman of Sweet Sparkman Architecture, the Sarasota firm working on Phase 2 with landscape architecture studio OLIN and construction manager Willis Smith, told the Observer that the master plan always meant for the conservatory to sit at the south end of Palm Avenue. "It's like the city ends in the gardens," he said.
Why the Calendar Doesn't Hinge on Fundraising
A fenced-off area only stays small if the project keeps moving. Large nonprofit projects usually stall in the gap between when donors pledge money and when that money actually arrives. Selby closed that gap ahead of time.
In July, the gardens sold $41.9 million in tax-exempt bonds, with R.W. Baird as underwriter and Capital Trust Agency as issuer. Fifteen investors put in orders adding up to about 10 times the bonds offered. As of Selby's August 11, 2026 announcement, it had raised $59.7 million toward the $60.9 million Phase 2 goal, or 98%. Phases 1 and 2 together have brought in more than $127 million, and 99% of it came from private philanthropy.
Rominiecki explained the borrowing in the same Your Observer article. Pledged gifts often arrive "over several years," she said, "but you need to have the cash on hand to do the building up front." The bonds let Selby "stay on schedule and build the project while we're collecting the philanthropic gifts."
The schedule itself has already moved once. In late 2025, Sarasota Magazine reported a Phase 2 completion target of end of 2027. Selby's August 2026 announcement gives November 2028. The bond money is meant to keep that new date fixed.
What's Behind the Glass This Season
The orchids are still why most people go to Selby, and the numbers explain why this build matters. Selby says its living research collection includes the world's best scientifically documented orchid and bromeliad collections, yet the public can see less than 5% of it today. The new Conservatory Complex is designed to put nearly 100% on view. According to the Observer, the roughly 20,000 specimens have been moved to an undisclosed location while the new conservatory goes up. In Sarasota Magazine, Rominiecki said the new buildings will fill "the footprint of the old glass house structures, which are past their useful life and will come down."
This year's Orchid Show makes good use of the space it has. The Orchid Show 2026: Christian Sampson runs through December 6. Sampson works in glass, acrylic and dichroic film, and his pieces are spread across the Richard and Ellen Sandor Museum of Botany & the Arts, the gardens and the Display Conservatory, where they share space with live orchids and other epiphytes. Dichroic film changes color as the light moves across it, so a mid-morning walk and a late-afternoon walk will look different.
The Downtown Campus Calendar, October Through New Year's
| Dates | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Through Dec. 6, 2026 | The Orchid Show 2026: Christian Sampson | Museum of Botany & the Arts, gardens and Display Conservatory |
| Oct. 25, 2026, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Spooktacular | Free for members, included with general admission; costumes and your own trick-or-treat bags encouraged |
| Oct. 29, 2026 | Fall 2026 Lunch in the Gardens | Co-chaired by Ariane Dart and Katie Hollingsworth; proceeds support education, research and conservation |
| Dec. 5, 2026 to Jan. 2, 2027 | Lights in Bloom | More than two million lights; closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve |
| Dec. 13, 2026 | Lights in Bloom all-inclusive night | Early entry, on-site parking, buffet dinner and open bar |
Lights in Bloom has two entry windows. Early entry starts at 5:30 p.m. and general entry at 6:30 p.m. The last entry is at 8 p.m., and the gardens close at 9. Selby's posted prices for early entry are $39 for member adults, $44 for nonmember adults and $24 for ages 5 to 17. General entry is $29, $34 and $19. Children 4 and under get in free either way. The December 13 all-inclusive night is $225 for adults and $75 for ages 5 to 17. Selby strongly encourages buying in advance, so check the Lights in Bloom page for current availability before you go.
Getting In, Parking and Lunch
Everything a visitor uses was finished in Phase 1, so none of it is affected by the current build.
- Parking is free inside the LEAF, Selby's Morganroth Family Living Energy Access Facility. You can enter from Mound Street at US 41 or from South Orange Avenue. The structure's roof carries a solar array of nearly 50,000 square feet.
- The Green Orchid by Michael's On East is open daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for walk-in indoor and outdoor seating. You need garden admission or a membership to eat there. Produce for the seasonal menu comes from the rooftop garden, which Operation EcoVets maintains.
- Daytime admission is free for members and for children 4 and under.
- Museums on Us, Bank of America's first-full-weekend program, includes Selby. In months with a rotating exhibition, Selby's visitor page lists admission at $5 rather than free.
- Reciprocal admission for members of participating institutions rotates by month. Selby's membership page lists Edison & Ford Winter Estates in October and The Florida Aquarium and the Florida Holocaust Museum in November.
If you'll be stopping by for the Orchid Show, Spooktacular and Lights in Bloom, a membership covers your daytime visits, gets you the lower Lights in Bloom price and lets you eat at The Green Orchid on an ordinary weekday.
What Opens in November 2028, and What Comes After
Phase 2 has three parts. The first is a hurricane-resilient Conservatory Complex built with what Selby calls the Selby System, a greenhouse design using lightweight polycarbonate glazing. According to Selby's August 2026 announcement, it's engineered to the 2023 Florida Building Code for publicly occupied buildings and was tested at full scale under simulated extreme hurricane conditions in 2026. The second is a new indoor and outdoor Learning Pavilion for Selby's education programs. The third is new landscape features, including a taras stone garden, a live oak grove and improved walkways.
Rominiecki told the Observer that the 2024 hurricane season helped the community "understand the urgent need to move forward," because Phase 2 "is all about resilience for our living collections as well as for our educational facilities."
After Phase 2 opens, the master plan moves to Phase 3. That phase restores the campus's two major historic buildings, connects all the walking paths and strengthens the seawalls along Sarasota Bay. Sarasota Magazine reported that Phase 3 includes a full historic restoration of the Payne Mansion, which houses the Museum of Botany and the Arts, along with making the paths fully accessible.
Living near the south end of Palm Avenue means planning around Selby's calendar as much as your own, and that will stay true through November 2028. If you're thinking about a home within walking distance of the gardens, or wondering how a project like this affects the streets around it, Sheldon, Gettel & Dahl would be glad to talk it through with you.
