Lakeland’s much-anticipated $400 million Lake District development officially got underway with a wet groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, Feb. 5.

The mix of commercial and residential development on the site of the old Factory Outlet Mall, at Interstate 40 and Canada Road, is expected to provide a major tax boost to the city. The first businesses in the mixed-use community are expected to open by this year’s holiday season.

All infrastructure work has been completed, and survey stakes mark the outline of the future Lake District Drive.

“The curbs will start to be poured next week, followed immediately by the paving,” Gilad President Yehuda Netanel said. Gilad Development is developing the project.

“The questions are over now. We’ve turned a lot of people with questions into supporters,” Netanel said. “Now we’re going to all enjoy what The Lake District will truly become and watch its potential come to fruition.”

Preliminary site work began last June and took longer than expected by three months, due primarily to weather.

“The weather for us has been an issue for the past 10 months,” Netanel said. “We had an extremely wet summer, and we’ve needed to do a lot of stop and go with our grading, compaction and top soil removal.”

The Lakeland Board of Commissioners, along with Mayor Mike Cunningham, were on hand to dig the first shovelfuls of earth on a day Cunningham called “monumental.”

“On behalf of all the citizens of Lakeland, we’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while. I’m glad to see it get to this point because there’s no turning back,” Cunningham said. “Even though the weather is nasty today, it’s a beautiful day for Lakeland.”

Lakeland Commissioner Richard Gonzales agreed.

“I’m happy to see the project get to this point and ready to get it out of the ground because we definitely desperately need the tax revenue here in Lakeland,” Gonzales said.

Phase 1 will consist of about 200,000 square feet of retail and entertainment spaces, with anchor tenants like a new Malco theater that will have nine screens and eight bowling lanes, plus specialty grocer The Stock Market.

Other Phase 1 tenants include Gould’s Salon and Spa, Osaka Japanese restaurant, Brick House Fitness, Starbucks, Elite Total Health, AT&T, Hollywood Feed, Gloss Nail Bar, Germantown Wines and Liquors, Memphis BBQ Co., Frida’s Restaurante Mexicano, Starbucks and Phillip Ashley Chocolates.

Residential townhomes will be built after the retail and entertainment portion is completed. 

“In order to have a lot of people populating The Lake District, they need to see amenities,” Netanel said. “So the amenities will be here in Phase 1 with the supermarket, movie theater, the beginning of the restaurants and other businesses.”

At buildout, The Lake District will be home to about 2,000 residents.

Linkous Construction is the general contractor for Phase 1, with designs and planning by LRK Architects and A2H.

“We’re looking forward to nice sunny weather, but we’re going to work in the mud anyway until then,” Linkous President Rusty Linkous said. “We’re just honored to be a part of this great project and get to work with this incredible team.”

Phase 2 construction will include a boutique hotel, an office district and more retail, restaurants, entertainment, single-family homes and apartments. It should get underway by the end of the year.

The Lake District also recently announced it will be the first community of its kind in the area as “golf cart friendly,” with walking trails and a 10-acre lake that will have lakefront dining options as well as natural trails along the perimeter of the development.

Phase 1 tenants line up for The Lake District

“We love the idea of connecting the community with golf carts, which means less wear and tear on roads and they are just more fun,” Maggie Gallagher, Gilad director of development, said in a statement. “We see them all over Florida, so why not here in the Memphis region?”