Demolition Starts on 66-Year-Old Florida Citrus Mutual Building

Demolition crews are leveling the Florida Citrus Mutual building, which has anchored the southeast corner of Orange Street and Massachusetts Avenue in downtown Lakeland for more than six decades. Work began last week.

Publix Super Markets bought the entire block seven years ago and plans to turn it into a landscaped surface parking lot for the company’s growing downtown technology campus.

The building at 411 E. Orange St. was designed by architect Donovan Dean, known for his midcentury modern designs, and built in 1957.

Lakeland city commissioners approved the demolition in August following months of negotiations with Publix about future uses for the 2.42-acre site just south of City Hall. The approval included landscaping requirements but no timeline for redevelopment of the property.