People receiving emailed links to an online survey about high-speed Internet have raised questions about whether it’s legitimate, City Manager Tony Delgado says. He confirms that the survey is authorized; it was sent randomly to 38,000 Lakeland residents by a consultant hired to create a business plan for a possible city broadband service.
Tampa Bay Business Journal is featuring Core Wealth Advisors as one of the region’s coolest office spaces. The space on the top floor of the Regions Bank Building, 124 S. Florida Ave., combines a large open area with getaway rooms and a gym. It was designed by The Lunz Group and built by Strickland Construction.
Kentucky Avenue will close between Orange Street and Lemon Street starting May 1 for construction of the five-story Heritage Plaza parking garage, the city of Lakeland has announced. The closure is expected to last until the end of 2019. More
Sunshine Growers sold its 32-acre nursery just west of the Carillon Lakes neighborhood (map) to Surterra Wellness for $3.3 million in February. It will be Lakeland’s first state-licensed facility for growing medical marijuana.
With construction of its Florida Poly-area oval track to test autonomous vehicles nearly complete, Florida Turnpike Enterprise is looking at next steps: hire a contractor to operate SunTrax by summer, start building the infield in August, and attract major companies to test driverless vehicles there by 2021.
Adding to the growing number of rentals downtown, Broadway Realty Services wants to turn a city-owned block just north of its NoBay project (photo) from 125 parking spaces into 100 apartments. The company wanted a quick sales process, but the Community Redevelopment Agency advisory board opted for the lengthier procedure of seeking qualifications from all interested buyers.
After somebody from West Elm saw Bump Galletta’s display at a pop-up market, the home decor retailer offered to sell caps, shirts and coffee mugs with the Lakeland artist’s fanciful drawings at all eight of its Florida stores.
What’s going to be built on the gravel parking lot between Lake Mirror and Massachusetts Avenue? Ledger reporter/editor Allison Guinn attempts to peer behind the misty gauze of persistent chatter about negotiations for the future of the city-owned “million-dollar parcel” that once housed a fire station. Nobody is going on the record, but the narrative that emerges centers on talks between the LEDC and city manager’s office for a high-rise office building anchored by Summit Holdings. The negotiations are also said to involve a parking garage on the property across Massachusetts Avenue that now holds the Terrace Hotel’s surface lot (map).
A collaboration to design LEDC’s Catapult 3.0 business incubator led to the merger of two large Lakeland architecture firms: The Lunz Group and WMB-ROI Inc. The firm, operating under the name The Lunz Group, is headed by Brad Lunz and now includes WMB-ROI’s Steve Boyington and Mike Murphey as shareholders. It has nine architects and 22 technical staff in five offices from Dunedin to Melbourne and is ranked by Tampa Bay Business Journal as the eighth largest architecture group in the bay area.
CarMax, a nationwide retailer of late-model used cars with a no-haggle approach, may open its first Polk County dealership on a now-vacant lot on U.S. 98 just south of Interstate 4.
To accommodate a car dealership, the 6.13-acre parcel at 3223 N. U.S. 98 would need to be rezoned from commercial highway use to planned unit development. Petitioner Vanessa Mesell, as Center Points Solutions, LLC, already has positive recommendations for that change from the Lakeland Planning and Zoning Board and from city staff. More
