Supervisors to explore info center purchase

LAKEWOOD RANCH — For Summerfield resident June Stroup, the one thing lacking in her community is a community center, like facilities seen in each section of The Villages, a retiree-only development located about an hour north of Orlando.

And Stroup believes Summerfield’s existing information center may be the perfect location for such a facility one day. Her colleagues agree.

During the Lakewood Ranch Community Development District 1 meeting Aug. 21, she and fellow supervisors agreed to hold a workshop to discuss the concept. No date has yet been set.

“I think it’s an opportunity to expand our services to the community. The building is old and it would have to be renovated, but I think it would be a community asset,” Stroup said, noting the facility could be used for ceramics, storage for clubs or other activities currently not accommodated at Lakewood Ranch Town Hall. “We can’t just purchase the building (with no intended use).”

CDD 1 Supervisor Alan Roth agreed.

“It’s a one-time opportunity,” he said.

Located near the southwest corner of State Road 70 and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard at 6310 Lakewood Ranch Blvd., the green-roofed information center with a wrap-around porch has served as an information center for Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch for nearly two decades. The center also houses Lakewood Ranch Community Activities Corp., an organization that organizes events for Lakewood Ranch residents.

Lisa Barnott, spokeswoman for SMR, said the company eventually will sell the property once the area is built out and an information center is no longer useful, but there is no timeline for doing so or any predetermined asking price.

The property must be used for community supporting uses, such as a recreation center, information center or community meeting rooms, per its zoning.

The Manatee County Property Appraiser’s website shows the 2.31-acre property appraised at $463,800 in 2014.

The one-level office building, which was built in 1995, has 3,964 square feet under roof, but only 2,740 square feet of usable business space.

Schroeder-Manatee Ranch currently has two other information centers: 6220 University Parkway, Sarasota; and 8307 Lake Club Blvd., Lakewood Ranch, in The Lake Club.

Stroup said she hoped the purchase of the Summerfield Information Center building, if financially feasible, would be a venture shared across Lakewood Ranch’s original districts — 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 — and that the entity that oversees joint-district projects, the Inter-District Authority, would eventually take the lead on securing and operating the facility.

BY THE NUMBERS
2.31 - Number of acres on which the information center sits.

3,964 - Total square footage of the Summerfield Information Center.

1995 - Year the information center opened.

3 - Number of information centers Schroeder-Manatee Ranch currently has in Lakewood Ranch.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].