Lakeland received a very large and valuable gift on Monday — 379.11 acres of prime park land valued at $12.9 million. It is the biggest single land donation in city history, according to Bob Donahay, director of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Arts.
Holloway Park is the legacy of land developer Ed Holloway, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 91, and his wife Mary Ann, who died a year later, also at 91. In 2010, the couple decided to preserve the land as a park and formed the Holloway Park Foundation, Inc. On Monday, the foundation gave it to Lakeland to manage in perpetuity.
There are only two conditions for the donation:
- Deed restrictions requiring that the property be used solely for park and recreational purposes to benefit Lakeland residents and the public at large.
- The park must continue to be known by the name “Holloway Park.”
Commissioners voted unanimously and enthusiastically to accept the gift.
“The Holloway family’s generosity in making this kind of an offer to the city is extraordinary — especially, particularly in the location that it is with respect to the city,” Mayor Bill Mutz said.
“It’s unbelievable,” Donahay said. “They’re just gifting it to the city. That doesn’t happen.”
About Holloway Park
Holloway Park is entwined with nature trails, including an elite series of NCAA-sanctioned 3K, 5K, 8K and 10K cross-country running trails. Donahay said the heavily wooded park is the #2-ranked cross-country facility in the state of Florida, behind only Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee. It currently hosts more than 30 cross-country track meets every year.
Commissioner Mike Musick, who coaches cross-country, said, “We travel the state yearly, running different courses. … This is as good as any facility we’ve run, and I know once Bob [Donahay] gets his claws into that place and his team, it’s just going to be next level.”
Mark Zimmerman, Visit Central Florida’s senior economic development manager, said he thinks the park can host even more cross-country meets. For instance, although the high school state championship has traditionally been held in Tallahassee and “it’s beloved there and they do a fabulous job,” Lakeland is a much more central location and would be more convenient for many runners. “We think with the partnership with the city, we can get right there and go after the state meet.”
The park also has an 18-hole multi-terrain disc golf course that hosted at least 4,261 rounds last year, according to a popular app that many players use. The course length is 7,825 ft with seven challenging holes over 400 ft.
Holloway Park takes in most of the land bounded by Lakeland Highlands Road to the west, Polk Parkway to the south, Edgewood Drive to the north and US Highway 98 South to the east.
It abuts the 33-acre John McGee Park (formally the Cypress Youth Sports Complex), the Florida Southern College athletic complex on Lakeland Highlands Road and an undeveloped Southeastern University property. It will also eventually connect to the Fort Fraser Trail.
A generous legacy
Commissioner Bill Read said he knew Ed Holloway for 30 years. “I can remember the first time he had called me up, and I asked him about selling some property. He says, ‘No, I’m going to turn it into a park.’ And so I said, ‘A park, like a mobile home park?’ He said, ‘No, a park park.”
Read said Holloway took him on a bumpy golf cart ride through the property. “We had a good tour. And that was the infancy of his legacy there,” Read said.
The park will now be managed by the City of Lakeland’s Parks, Recreation & Cultural Arts Department. Donahay said it will be closed for the next two to four weeks so the department can transition its staff into the operations and maintenance of the park. After that, there will be a grand reopening celebration.
“This adds 379 acres to our open space, which gives us a total of 2,235 acres of parks and shoreline in the city of Lakeland,” Donahay said, noting that it works out to 17.7 acres per 1,000 residents. “Folks, that’s what makes Lakeland special right there.”
David Holloway — Mary Ann and Ed’s son who helped to facilitate the donation — was not at the commission meeting. Donahay said, “If you know David, he’s not big on ceremonies. He promised me he would come for the grand reopening, ‘But that’s about as far as you’ll get me.'”
Donahay said the city will have an initial investment of $82,774 for equipment including three 72-inch zero-turn mowers and two rough-terrain utility vehicles (RTVs), which will be paid out of impact fees. After that, maintenance will cost $12,000 a year, plus $20,000 for rental and service of six portable toilets positioned throughout the park and $10,000 for miscellaneous supplies such as trash bags.
He said the park is a natural area with lower-intensity maintenance needs than playing fields; mostly trail mowing and tree trimming.
“We feel that with all the events we will be hosting, we’ll more than make up that amount of money,” Donahay said, adding that the city will create a master plan for the park, including building permanent restroom facilities in the future. It will also seek grants to help fund improvements.
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I’m so sad right now. Holloway Park has been a beautiful sanctuary for us and our dogs for a long time. Acres of peaceful land with hardly any people. Now it’s going to be an over-crowded mess of humans like everywhere else in this town. So very sad.
I agree. I know growth is good, but this is insane. There’s so many people everywhere now. There’s no reprieve unless you just stay home.
Still many quiet places. Get the AllTrails app and you will find places no one goes. Have you tried Marshall Hampton?
No, don’t be so pessimistic. I don’t think much will change !! Hopefully a bathroom will come and extended hours.