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A new draft of the Midtown redevelopment plan recently released by the Lakeland Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) imagines an area where more people live near Lakeland Regional Health, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue becomes a stronger business corridor, Tigertown draws visitors year-round, and trails connect Bonnet Springs Park to a new nature preserve.
“There is blight still existing, and we’ve come a long way, but there’s still a lot more to do in Midtown,” CRA Project Manager Jonathan Rodriguez said. “The intent of this plan is really to set a more positive tone … because we want to attract that private investment in Midtown.”
The updated plan will be presented to the CRA Advisory Board on July 9 and the Lakeland Planning and Zoning Board on July 21. Public feedback will continue to be accepted through the City Commission’s first reading.
The updated Midtown plan envisions Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue as a commercial and cultural corridor. | City of Lakeland 
Major intersections in Midtown could be anchored by taller buildings and have trees and brick crosswalks to maintain charm and sense of place. | City of Lakeland 
Major intersections in Midtown could be anchored by taller buildings and have trees and brick crosswalks to maintain charm and sense of place. | City of Lakeland 
As a major commercial corridor and gateway to Interstate 4, the intersection of U.S. 98 North and Griffin Road is a prime place for thoughtful mixed-use construction and tree-lined medians. | City of Lakeland 
As a major commercial corridor and gateway to Interstate 4, the intersection of U.S. 98 North and Griffin Road is a prime place for thoughtful mixed-use construction and tree-lined medians. | City of Lakeland 
The Midtown plan sees lots of potential for revitalization of Lakeland Town Center, formerly known as Searstown, and the parcels directly south of it. | City of Lakeland
Valerie Vaught, Lakeland’s CRA manager, described Midtown as the city’s “largest and most diverse” redevelopment district. She noted that most people entering Lakeland travel through Midtown, making it the city’s front door as well as home to major assets, including Lakeland Regional Health, Bonnet Springs Park, and Tigertown.
Rodriguez noted that more than half of Midtown’s jobs are tied to healthcare and said new hospital competition elsewhere in Lakeland should spur innovation rather than weaken the district.
Big ideas for familiar places
Around Lakeland Regional: The plan calls for more workforce housing, medical offices, and retail around one of the city’s largest employment centers. It recommends structured parking, better pedestrian connections, and possibly a hotel.
Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue: The draft would build on the corridor’s history with streetscape improvements, public art, a heritage trail, new local businesses, and a stronger identity as Midtown’s cultural spine.
Tigertown: The plan suggests adding restaurants, entertainment, lodging, mixed-use redevelopment, better trail connections, a boutique sports hotel, and possibly a public parking garage.
Mass Market: The draft builds on the redevelopment underway along North Massachusetts Avenue by recruiting more restaurants and small businesses, improving nearby commercial properties, and assembling vacant or underused parcels for new investment.
The Bottom: The plan says nearly everyone in Midtown already lives within a 10-minute walk of a park but identifies a few remaining gaps. One proposed solution is a nature preserve in The Bottom that would offer better access to green space, provide additional stormwater storage, and help connect Bonnet Springs Park, Lake Parker, and other destinations.
“I think we’re hyperlocal and hyperfocused on carrying through on the vision and the mission of the CRA here,” Rodriguez said.
Don’t lose what makes Midtown Midtown
The redevelopment plan is accompanied by the first comprehensive historic resources survey ever completed for Midtown.
“The City of Lakeland has a rich history … though many of the achievements and important contributions of early African American residents, as well as stories of their daily lives, are still lacking,” the report says.
The historic resources survey was conducted to “bring awareness to the unique history of the Midtown CRA’s neighborhoods that have been traditionally excluded from historic preservation’s beneficial aspects.”
Consultant Kathleen Kauffman said she personally reviewed more than 7,000 parcels and found 3,480 buildings constructed before 1976. Only 263 retained enough historic integrity to be considered eligible for local designation.
“These neighborhoods are not the high-style architecture neighborhoods,” Kauffman told the city’s Historic Preservation Board on June 25. “But even so, they all very clearly had character.”
Rather than recommending large historic districts, the survey proposes preserving smaller pockets of history in neighborhoods such as Parker Street and North Lake Wire, protecting the remaining World War II hangars near Tigertown, creating Midtown-specific design guidelines, and expanding incentives for preservation.
From fixing problems to building on momentum
The updated plan recommends acquiring key sites, assembling larger tracts for development, expanding the CRA’s land bank program, and working more proactively with owners of vacant and underused properties. It also calls for tracking ownership patterns and recurring redevelopment barriers to better target incentives and outreach.
The plan recommends expanding community policing, offering security camera grants, and beautifying vacant lots and major corridors.
“Midtown has over 27 neighborhoods,” Rodriguez said. “Being able to zone in on each neighborhood or each subarea of Midtown … is going to require a lot more work.”
The report identifies 788 vacant residential parcels, 157 vacant commercial parcels, and 51 vacant industrial parcels across Midtown.
Residents who participated in surveys and public meetings raised concerns about housing affordability, illegal dumping, food access, traffic, safety, homelessness, and vacant properties.
Business owners said the visibility of unhoused people can discourage investment, and some residents mentioned Talbot House.
The report says little about absentee landlords or chronic nuisance properties. It recommends attracting more restaurants, shops, and entertainment around Mass Market but does not explore why those businesses have been difficult to recruit or sustain.
The Yard on Mass — one of the CRA’s signature redevelopment projects — closed in June 2024, and the building has remained vacant for over two years.
A foundation for growth
The original 2001 plan viewed Midtown primarily through the lens of decline. The update argues that decades of investment have created a foundation for growth. From 2015 to 2025, $2.8 million in CRA grants helped generate more than $20 million in private investment.
A “gap analysis” appendix to the report says the CRA has completed, started, or partially completed nearly 85% of the recommendations from the original. The updated plan recommends extending the Midtown CRA another 30 years to Sept. 30, 2056.
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Where is the money coming from to pay for all the improvements? It’s a big list of projects. If there is any plans whatsoever to use any tax dollars or grants they better get them now. If the reduced property tax bill passes in November there won’t be any extra tax dollars to be had.