Lakewood Ranch will expand in 2024 and beyond. Here's what to expect.
Lakewood Ranch, the largest multi-generational master-planned community in the U.S., has spent its 30 years in the Manatee-Sarasota region tailoring its development to what home-buyers want.
Proximity to nature has been a constant, senior Vice President Laura Cole said, but trends have come and gone since the master-planned community first broke ground. Wide open space, proximity to neighbors, bigger houses, smaller ones — every layout has had its moment in the sun.
But these days, Cole said buyers don’t just want one thing: They want everything. Catering to the modern consumer is as much about shopping centers and office space as it is about the area’s beloved nature trails and green space.
“When I want the activity, I want to have it, but I also need to decompress in this world,” Cole said. “We don’t shortchange that.”
That’s where development is headed in 2024 and beyond, Cole said. As Lakewood Ranch looks to expand into the new year, it's keeping lifestyle at the forefront, building all-encompassing communities that service all its residents’ needs.
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Current development trends point to a preference for new urbanism, an approach that promotes walkability and accessibility by placing a variety of lifestyle components close together. Put simply, people want to work, shop, eat, exercise and socialize where they live, and a recent uptick in mixed-use development proposals reflect that desire.
Mixed-use developments like Waterside Park — an 8-acre community on Kingfisher Lake — emphasize this access, with restaurants, office buildings, nature trails and stores adjacent to townhomes. Master-planned communities like Lakewood Ranch saw this trend coming, Cole said, and prepared accordingly.
“You have a plan and a vision and principles, but you also have to be adaptable to market changes,” Cole said. “This is a perfect example of the flavor that we’re offering.”
Lakewood Ranch has nine new neighborhoods and villages in progress — including the multigenerational Saddlestone, the age-restricted Del Webb and the Calusa National Golf development. Erickson Senior Living, a national retirement community developer, will also break ground on the 1,200-unit Emerson Lakes development.
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The new developments come as Lakewood Ranch caps a sixth consecutive year as the best-selling multigenerational master-planned community in the U.S., as designated by real estate consulting firm RCLCO. Its 33,000 acres house 67,000 residents across 42 neighborhoods, as well as 2,800 businesses with more than 20,000 employees.
Last year also saw more than 2,000 home sales: a figure that’s held steady, Cole said, for the past five years or so. More than 26,000 single-family homes, townhomes, apartments and other living spaces are either built or under construction in Lakewood Ranch to keep up with demand.
Schools, retail centers with local vendors, healthcare facilities, entertainment centers and other amenities are also in the pipeline as Lakewood Ranch looks to expand to eastern parts of Sarasota and Manatee counties. The plans are alarming to some (a group of residents in the Bern Creek Ranches filed a lawsuit challenging the proposed Lakewood Ranch Southeast expansion last November), but Cole anticipates they will ultimately aid the Sarasota-Manatee area as it continues to grow.
Local growth ballooned around 2016 and was exacerbated by a pandemic-fueled population surge. Census population estimates from 2023 put Sarasota and Manatee Counties at almost 910,00 combined residents — about a 25% increase from the counties’ combined population of around 732,000 a decade earlier.
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That growth has started to taper, but Cole said Lakewood Ranch continues to see home sales climb, mostly thanks to a new trend that’s taken shape as Lakewood Ranch reaches longevity. Thirty-seven percent of Lakewood Ranch’s home sales in 2023 originated from residents who lived somewhere else within the community. Whether it’s couples in townhouses looking to expand their accommodations or empty-nesters ready to downsize, Cole said Lakewood Ranch and its population are growing and changing simultaneously.
She hopes it indicates Lakewood Ranch will become a legacy community that caters to every stage of life. Lakewood Ranch’s holistic lifestyle approach means it should long outlive its creators, Cole said. She hopes the community model will allow it to sustain itself as its residents move within it.
“How do you harness that growth and shape it in a way that’s beneficiary?” Cole said. “When the developer leaves, this place should live the same.”
Contact Herald-Tribune Growth and Development Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: What to expect from Lakewood Ranch in 2024
