Lakewood Ranch Flexes Commercial Strength


 

SARASOTA, FLORIDA, December 28th, 2016 – Echoes of the current residential construction boom in Lakewood Ranch (LWR) are reverberating in the master development’s commercial real estate sector. At LWR’s Gatewood Corporate Park in East Manatee County, development was recently set in motion for industrial space of as much as 700,000 square feet as yet another push to the area’s building spree.

This project is now rolling onwards after Tampa-based Harrod Properties closed in mid-December a $3.5 million purchase for its 85-acre site south of Gatewood Drive and east of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. Several residential property development projects are notably ongoing too near this area. These include Indigo of Neal Communities and Serenity Creek of Meritage Homes, both of which already have models listed among Bradenton homes for sale.

First Bulk Industrial Space in LWR

Lakewood Ranch Flexes Commercial Strength

Harrod Properties expects to break ground on its Gatewood Corporate Park project in early 2017. County officials are fast-tracking its construction permit for seven buildings, the first of which is a 100,000-square foot building and a warehouse with 60,000 square feet of space. In all, Harrod plans eight buildings worth approximately $50 million on its newly purchased LWR parcel.

This bulk industrial space will be a first in Lakewood Ranch, although the master development has already drawn corporate office headquarters like the insurer FCCI and Miles Media on Professional Parkway west of Lakewood Ranch Blvd. Harrod Properties’ LWR venture would be the second in Manatee for this commercial real estate company which earlier developed the 522,699-square-foot facility of Feld Entertainment in Ellenton.

New Medical Offices

Meanwhile, two new medical offices are also in the pipeline in the Lakewood Ranch area. One is planned on a parcel of nearly an acre at Ranch Lake Plaza on State Road 70. Doctors Hospital of Sarasota announced early this year that it plans to set up a free-standing emergency room on this site near the golf community of Rosedale.

A short distance east on the intersection of State Road 70 and Lorraine Road, Sarasota Memorial Hospital has purchased land for the new medical office building of its First Physicians Group. In this same area, the County Commission approved early this December an SMR application for the mixed-used Lorraine Corners Northeast.

Consisting of nearly 68 acres, the Lorraine Corners Northeast’s site is planned for either commercial and office space with a maximum of 573,500 square feet, residences at maximum of 220 units or a combination of both. Lorraine Corners Northeast is ideally situated west of the Premier Sports Campus and north of Greenbrook, which has a rich stock of Lakewood Ranch homes for sale.

Pickings at Greenbrook

Home hunters inspired by the rising LWR commercial developments will have some fine choices in the attractively priced homes of Greenbrook. The price range in this community starts around the mid-$200s, featuring residences with three bedrooms within floor areas of between 1,400 and 1,550 square feet.

The upper-tier choices in this community are four-bedroom homes with floor plans of nearly 4,000 square feet and asking prices in the high $600s. One of the attractions in this community is the Greenbrook Adventure Park with playgrounds and ball fields that should help balance the growing buzz of commerce within the Lakewood Ranch master development.