Ranch to build new facility

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Lakewood Ranch Town Hall’s Operations Department is moving forward with plans for constructing a new maintenance facility off 59th Avenue East.

Town Hall officials received recently a preliminary site plan for the new building, which will allow the Lakewood Ranch Inter-District Authority formally to move forward with purchasing the property.

“All of our administrative legwork has been taken care of, and now, it’s implementation time,” Director of Operations Ryan Heise said. “(Once complete, the new facility) is going to provide more space and more opportunities for our vendors to stage equipment on-site, which will result in cost savings to residents.

“We will be able to design a facility the (exact) way we want it to meet as many operational efficiencies as we can develop,” he said.

IDA representatives have been looking for a new site for the district’s maintenance facility, which currently is housed adjacent to the Pinnacle Academy on Lorraine Road, since it learned more than a year ago that Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch would not be renewing its lease.

SMR President and CEO Rex Jensen said SMR has a contract with Pinnacle Academy for the property the IDA currently leases for its maintenance facility and the adjacent buildings Pinnacle currently leases from SMR, although the deal is not yet signed.

Supervisors on the IDA in December 2010 first agreed to contract with King Engineering for professional consulting services, contingent on getting a purchase agreement for the property with SMR.

About a year later, SMR and the IDA had a purchase agreement in writing, but SMR needed more time to determine its right of way requirements for 59th Avenue East. SMR in February finalized its design, allowing the IDA to move forward with developing a conceptual design for the property.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].