Summit Consulting, a workers’ compensation firm, is negotiating with the City of Lakeland on the largest downtown construction project in decades for a property on Lake Mirror. The plans on the former “Old Fire Station Lot” at the southeast corner of Massachusetts Ave. and Cedar St. include:
- An eight-story, 135,000 sq. ft. office building.
- 150 parking spaces available to the public on evenings + weekends.
- 500 new employees within walking distance of downtown restaurants + businesses. The last two employers who brought 500+ jobs downtown were Watkins Motor Lines (now FedEx) in 1994 and Publix IT operations in 1995.
City Manager Tony Delgado has been handling negotiations like the purchasing price, incentives, utilities, city rights for parking, etc. The City Commission will be approving the sale of the property (currently ranging between $1.5-$3 million) and the development plan.
Summit Consulting has submitted conceptual designs for review to the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA), who is responsible for reviewing the designs of new buildings + major alterations in the downtown area.
Here are a few things in discussion:
- The project currently represents a single-tenant building, which may need to be altered to line up with the city’s Catalyst Plan with mixed-use developments.
- The conceptual drawings do not yet represent a final development plan.
- The project needs to have pedestrian interactivity, linking downtown to Lake Mirror.