► Pura Vida, a Miami-based café, is expanding into Sarasota at the University Town Center and will open a 2,000-square-foot restaurant, in 2024.
► The Sarasota County Commission awarded Art Center Sarasota a $72,855 Tourist Development Cultural/Arts grant to help fund its 2023-2024 exhibition season, which runs through September 2024.
► WUSF Public Media opened a newsroom and studios, in the Limelight District of Sarasota.
► David Broecker, of RE/MAX Alliance Group, has earned the Graduate, Realtor Institute designation from the National Association of Realtors.
► New College of Florida History Professor Carrie Beneš, in collaboration with Amanda Madden, of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, Laura Ingallinella, of the University of Toronto, and Laura Morreale, an independent scholar has been awarded a $150,000 grant as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Scholarly Editions and Translations program for a research project that more than 10 institutions will be collaborating on.
► Allyce Heflin Moriak was named assistant vice president, budget and administration for New College of Florida.
► The Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast recently received two $15,000 grants from Gulf Coast Community Foundation to support the Foundation’s land management and restoration programs on their protected lands with a specific focus on improving wildlife habitat and increasing climate resiliency.
► The Sephardic Foundation on Aging awarded the Jewish Family and Children Services of the Suncoast a $25,000 grant for its Aging Services program.
► Bank of America recently granted $15,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County to help invest in local teens’ educational success.
► Dr. Miguel G. Rivera has teamed up with Town Square Sarasota to offer onsite clinics to treat members with dementia, as well as advisory services.
► The Pickleball Club, a developer and operator of private, membership-based indoor pickleball facilities throughout Florida, named Scott Brynski as its general manager for the Lakewood Ranch location.
► The Sarasota Opera leased 19,000 square feet at the SRQ Distribution Campus, at 7201 15th St E., in Manatee County, to use for storage, office and warehouse space.
► Manatee County-based Benderson Development purchased a Publix in the Olde Village shopping center, at 55 N. Indiana Ave., Englewood.
► Matt Eisenacher has been promoted to chief brand officer of First Watch, in Bradenton.
► Goodwill Manasota purchased, and renovated, a space, at 400 U.S. Highway 41 Bypass N., in Venice, for a bookstore and donation center.
► The Stage at Payne Park selected Fleischman Garcia Maslowski Architecture of Sarasota to lead the design of the new home for The Players Centre for Performing Arts, at 2100 E Laurel Street, Sarasota.
► Chanté Blough was named the new chief marketing officer at Michael Saunders & Co., in Sarasota.
► Boat Owners Warehouse is expanding into Sarasota, with the company’s first Gulf Coast location, in Florida, at 7522 S. Tamiami Trail.
► Pineapple Kitchen, a hospitality company, based in Bradenton, will start hosting murder mystery dinners at the Even Hotel Sarasota–Lakewood Ranch and Hotel Indigo, in downtown Sarasota,