LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL-Lakewood Ranch is seeing new development this year that will infuse more than $100 million into Florida’s west coast. Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, developers of the master-planned community, has attracted several private groups to develop a mix of homes, apartments, retail stores, schools and government offices there.
Lakewood Ranch is the 8,500-acre master-planned community in Sarasota and Manatee counties. It's home to more 15,000 residents and features A-rated schools, a hospital, the Sarasota Polo Club, its own Main Street with theaters, shopping and dining and 4 million square feet of commercial property. Lakewood Ranch has already sold more than 170 homes this year.
“Lakewood Ranch is without a doubt the growth corridor in the region and the state right now,” says Brian Kennelly, LWR Commercial Realty President. “We are a pocket of normalcy in the region and are coming out of the recession first due to the strength, stability and value that this area provides to buyers and business owners.”
New projects include the 380-acre neighborhood by Neal Communities that will eventually be home to 800 families with a 150,000-square foot shopping center. Neal has already sold 125 homes since the community opened in July of 2010.
Meanwhile, the LECOM School of Dental Medicine just broke ground on its 110,000-square-foot building expected to cost $52 million and open its doors in 2012. The Lost Creek apartment complex is also underway and will offer 272 apartments at a cost of about $30 million. The first residents will occupy units in December. This is the first new apartment complex to be built in Manatee County in the past 10 years.
Esplanade, the ranch’s first active adult community, by Taylor Morrison, is expected to break ground in August for sales to begin in early 2012. It will cost about $5 million to develop. These projects in addition to road improvements and several other smaller neighborhoods and office buildings in the works will make this area of Lakewood Ranch a fast growing area in the state of Florida.
“The 2011 success story at Lakewood Ranch is due in large measure to bold investments to attract both repeat and new visitors to the many attractions of living in this trend-setting new community,” says David Parker of Parker & Associates, an economic consulting firm. “It is no surprise that record numbers of prospects from across the United States and beyond are visiting and buying at Lakewood Ranch.”
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