A concrete truck rumbled into Gilad Development’s ambitious $400 million planned community, The Lake District, Friday, March, 27, ready to pour the foundation slab for the first retail building at the 160-acre mixed-use project.

Workers Monday, March 30, will begin to raise the walls of the building at the site of the former Factory Outlet Mall at Interstate 40 and Canada Road in Lakeland.

City leaders turned out Friday afternoon to celebrate the occasion.

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“I think this is spectacular. Today is a glorious day for Lakeland. It’s something we’ve waited for for quite a while,” Mayor Mike Cunningham said. “Seeing the footings going into the ground is a great sign of things to come. With the pandemic happening, it’s nice to see some positive things moving forward and not have everything just put on hold.”

The concrete and steel rebars installed Friday are for an Osaka Japanese Cuisine restaurant that will anchor one end of the building, which will also include a Stock Market specialty grocery store, Hollywood Feed, a fine wine and liquor store from the owners of Germantown Wines and Liquors, and other businesses new to Lakeland.

“I know the city will be eternally grateful to get those new businesses open,” Cunningham said.

Due to the unrelenting rain the first part of the year and a soggy 2019, the project is 90 days behind its original schedule, meaning the first stores and restaurants should open in early 2021.

“To make sure that future weather will not be an issue, we’ve created a temporary all-weather road that will allow us access to the site without the need to wait for everything to dry around us,” Gilad President Yehuda Netanel said. “If it continues to be wet weather throughout the spring, it’s not going to hamper us as much anymore.”

When asked about the looming possibility of a recession, Netanel countered: “As a developer, if you try to dodge a recession you will never lay a brick in your life.”

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The coronavirus pandemic is not affecting Gilad’s available workforce at this point.

“Everybody is looking for an opportunity to be outside in the clean air,” Netanel said. “Everybody wants to be here, it’s a safe environment and in relative terms, I personally am safer here than I would be in Los Angeles.”

Preliminary site work began at the Lake District last June but took longer than expected due primarily to weather.

“Seeing these slabs get poured is so exciting and allows all of us to find something to cheer about right now,” Lakeland Vice Mayor Josh Roman said. “I’m rooting for the Lake District, and I appreciate the developer’s tunnel vision to block out the noise and press onward.”

Work will continue next week with cutting out the rest of the foundation and placing the steel rebars for the rest of the Phase I retail building. Curbs for the new streets should also be poured next week.

“I knew it was coming, but it’s still reassuring to see it happening,” said Lakeland Commissioner Wesley Wright, who describes himself as one of the biggest cheerleaders for the project. “I’m glad because we know that once the foundation goes up, everything else falls into place much easier.”

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Phase I will consist of about 200,000 square feet of retail and entertainment spaces, with anchor tenants like a new Malco theater – with nine screens and eight bowling lanes – as well as Gould’s Salon and Spa, Brick House Fitness, Starbucks, Elite Total Health, AT&T and Gloss Nail Bar. Additionally, 109 residential townhomes are planned as part of the latter part of the first phase.

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

Phase 2, which should get underway next year, will include a boutique hotel site, an office building and more retail, restaurants, entertainment, single-family homes and apartments.

“This is a triumph for Lakeland, and people will be ecstatic to see this going up,” Wright said. “It’s just a whole different scale of project that the Mid-South hasn’t seen before.”

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