Lake Mary to create ‘Midtown’ for new $200M mixed-use project
The city of Lake Mary is looking to create an area called Midtown, in part, to house a new $200 million mixed-use development planned by Unicorp National Developments Inc.
The city is seeking a change to its comprehensive plan to create a mixed-use Midtown future land-use category. And the first project within that proposed Midtown district would be Unicorp’s planned 34.5-acre Griffin Farm Town Center at the southwest corner of West Lake Mary Boulevard and Longwood-Lake Mary Road, city documents showed.
Midtown is being proposed as the area east of Rinehart Road and west of Fifth Street, city documents showed.
A change to the comprehensive plan would require state approval and the Lake Mary planning and zoning commission is expected to discuss sending those plans to the state for review during a meeting on Aug. 25, city documents showed.
A public hearing will be held this evening on both items and the applicants are property owners Griffin Interests LLC and Piloian Property Holdings LLC, documents showed. The planning and zoning commission meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 100 N. Country Club Road in Lake Mary.
If the planning and zoning commission recommends sending the plans to the state, the county commission would have the final say-so, which could happen as early as September.
Unicorp President Chuck Whittall previously talked to Orlando Business Journal about preliminary plans for the project, which include 120,000 square feet of retail — including a new-to-market organic grocery store and health club — along with 300 high-end apartments and 200 single-family homes. Previous reports also mentioned a possible Panera Bread in the development.
Whittall couldn’t be reached for comment by press time.
However, Unicorp could close on the land — owned by the historic Griffin family cattle ranchers — in January, pending approvals. The project could create hundreds of temporary construction and permanent jobs in Central Florida and would bring plenty of new housing, shopping and dining options to existing residents and those looking to move to the area.