New plan includes apartments in Lakewood Ranch

A Florida-based apartment developer hopes to add more luxury apartments to the Lakewood Ranch rental market.

Picerne Development, of Altamonte Springs, hopes to build Oasis at Lakewood Ranch, a 254-unit luxury apartment complex at the southeast corner of Lorraine Road and 59th Avenue East. The site is part of the existing Lorraine Corners project and is immediately north of a future Publix shopping center at the corner of Lorraine and State Road 70.

Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch is requesting changes to its Lorraine Corners general development plan that would increase the number of allowed apartment units from 220 to 254, reduce the number of required parking spaces from 2.1 per unit to 1.8, and increase maximum building height from 35 feet to 50 feet.

The changes are requested to accommodate development of multifamily housing, said Darenda Marvin, representative for

applicant Schroeder-Manatee Ranch.

“(In 2016) SMR wanted to bring forward a cohesive plan,” she told commissioners about why the plans had changed. “They had to guess what some of those other uses might be and who those buyers might be … We put much more development into that than we thought would develop.”

Marvin said 35 feet is the maximum height allowed in residential areas when there is no specific site plan, but higher heights are allowed with board approval.

Manatee County Planning Commission members supported the changes during their Jan. 17 meeting, but Manatee County commissioners will make the final decision Feb. 7.

Picerne Development’s Bill Shallcross said, if approved, Picerne wants to build six three-story, walk-up apartment buildings and two four-story buildings with elevators. The complex itself will have a dog park and a clubhouse with a fitness center, a business center, a pool, a yoga room and other amenities.

Shallcross said the request for parking reductions is based on experience at its other apartment projects. Oasis at Lakewood Ranch also will have a sidewalk connection to the future Publix shopping center, immediately south, where there will be employment opportunities.

If the development changes are approved in February, Shallcross said it will take about three months to finalize construction plans.

“We hope to be under construction in late April,” he said, noting the first building likely would open one year later.

Shallcross said Picerne expects many of its renters to be people looking for temporary housing as they construct new homes in Lakewood Ranch.

The University Corners project runs roughly from State Road 70 north to 59th Avenue East, east of Lorraine Road and west of Post Boulevard. On it, Big Jim Self Storage, Bayside Pet Resort and a Taco Bell restaurant have already been developed.