Dock, Boat Lift and Seawall Contractor Serving Sarasota, Florida

Anderson Dock & Lift Co. works the Sarasota waterfront from our base in Bradenton, north of Sarasota. Sarasota is not one water body. It is a chain of them: open bay on the north side, narrow protected bayous off the mainland shore, dredged residential canals on the keys, and creek-fed backwaters to the south. A design that suits one of those does not suit the others.

Owner Pete Anderson holds Florida certified specialty contractor license SCC131152520. The company is veteran owned and operated, founded in 2019, fully insured, and carries over 60 years of combined crew experience. We are members of the Florida Marine Contractors Association and the Seawall Repair Network. Estimates are free and returned within 24 business hours. Financing is available. Call (941) 720-6733, Monday through Friday, 8am to 4pm.

The Water in Sarasota

Sarasota Bay is the largest and deepest bay between Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor, roughly 22,500 acres, and much of it is designated an Outstanding Florida Water. It exchanges with the Gulf through Longboat Pass, New Pass and Big Sarasota Pass. Behind the barrier chain of Longboat Key, Lido Key and Siesta Key, and around the interior bay islands of St. Armands, Bird Key and City Island, the water narrows into Whitaker Bayou about a mile north of downtown and Hudson Bayou just south of it, Pansy Bayou between City Island and Lido Key, and Roberts Bay between the Siesta Drive and Stickney Point bridges, which takes the outflow of Phillippi Creek, a 7-mile tidal creek draining a roughly 57-square-mile urban basin. Farther south, past the Stickney Point bridge, lie Little Sarasota Bay and Blackburn Bay. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway runs the whole length.

Waterfront areas we cover: Bird Key, Harbor Acres, Cherokee Park, Oyster Bay Estates, Lido Key and St. Armands Key, Siesta Key canals, Hudson Bayou, Whitaker Bayou, Phillippi Creek and Roberts Bay.

Open bay exposure and canal shelter are different problems

Sarasota Bay is open water running roughly north to south, so a bayfront dock takes wind-driven chop that a canal dock never sees. Piling embedment, bracing and lift capacity get sized for that. The dredged canals on Bird Key, Siesta Key and along Phillippi Creek are sheltered from open-water waves but concentrate current and boat wake between hard walls, which loads a structure in a different direction. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway carries steady traffic through the middle of the system, and wake reaches well past the channel. We ask which of those conditions a site actually faces before specifying a lift or laying out a dock, because the loads are not comparable.

Seagrass sets the dock layout before anything else does

Sarasota Bay carries broad seagrass flats, and both county and state rules govern what a dock may do to them. Docks get routed and elevated to avoid shading grass, decking is spaced so light passes through, and terminal platforms and lifts are pushed toward bottom that is already bare or previously dredged. In practice that means a longer access walkway and a smaller platform than most owners first picture. It also means the survey matters. A benthic resource survey showing what is actually on the bottom is the document that decides where a dock can go, and skipping it is the fastest way to lose a permit cycle.

Seawalls after Helene and Milton

Hurricane Helene passed in September 2024 and Hurricane Milton made landfall at Siesta Key on October 9, 2024, the first hurricane landfall in Sarasota County since 1944. Surge and wave action pulled fill from behind older walls and worked on cap steel and tieback rods that were already corroding in saltwater. A seawall in this area usually fails from behind rather than from the face: water gets trapped, fill washes out through joints, then the cap cracks along its reinforcement. We inspect for voids behind the wall, cap and joint condition, and tieback integrity, then advise repair with new tiebacks and panel work, or full replacement. Retaining walls on the same properties get the same inspection.

Lifts sized for the berth and for the run to open water

Lift selection here is driven by depth at the berth and by what the boat has to cross to reach the Gulf. We install Sea Mount, Hurricane and Deco lifts across jet ski and PWC, pontoon, sailboat and large yacht ranges, and we handle lift inspections, service and repair. Big Sarasota Pass and New Pass both shoal, and both have been dredged in connection with Lido Key renourishment, so channel conditions change. Owners on Little Sarasota Bay have a different picture again since Helene and Milton reopened Midnight Pass in 2024. A lift sized only for the slip, without asking what the boat runs through on the way out, is sized for half the problem.

Permits in Sarasota

Who issues them: Two separate local jurisdictions. City of Sarasota Development Services (Building and Zoning) handles property inside city limits, which includes downtown, the Hudson Bayou and Whitaker Bayou frontages, Bird Key, St. Armands Key and Lido Key. Unincorporated Sarasota County, including Siesta Key, is regulated by the Sarasota County Water and Navigation Control Authority under Chapter 54, Article XX of the county code, with permits classified Minor, General or Major. Longboat Key is a separate town. Above the local level: the Florida Department of Environmental Protection South District, for the Environmental Resource Permit or exemption; the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund, which owns the sovereignty submerged lands and consents to their use through FDEP; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for navigable waters; and FWC manatee protection zones. Gulf-side work near the beach can also trigger the county Coastal Setback Code and the Gulf Beach Setback Line, which requires a variance from the County Commission.

Which office you file with is set by the parcel, not by the mailing address. Inside the city, dock, lift and seawall work goes through City of Sarasota Development Services. In unincorporated county, the Water and Navigation Control Authority permit is handled by the county’s Environmental Protection Division and applied for through Sarasota County’s online permitting portal, with in-person service at the Planning and Development Services One Stop at 870 Apex Road in Sarasota or the R.L. Anderson Administration Center at 4000 S. Tamiami Trail in Venice. A building permit for the structure, where one is required, is a separate filing. Much of Sarasota Bay is within an Outstanding Florida Water, where the state exemption threshold for private docks is tighter than in ordinary waters. Whether a given parcel falls inside that boundary is confirmed at the start of the job, because it decides whether the project can proceed as an exemption or needs an affirmative FDEP authorization. We prepare and carry the filings.

What We Build and Repair

Frequently Asked Questions

Anderson Dock & Lift is based in Bradenton and works across Florida’s Gulf Coast. See every town we cover, or call (941) 720-6733 for a free estimate within 24 business hours.