Published: Friday, May. 30, 2008

Updated: Friday, May. 30, 2008

Corporate Park unique in Manatee, Sarasota

LAKEWOOD RANCH --- With about 150 businesses located on more than 1,270 acres south of University Parkway, the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park is one of the largest business centers of its kind in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Considered a major employment center along the Interstate 75 corridor, the Corporate Park, which opened in 1996, offers an estimated 1.9 million square feet of Class A office space next to 400 acres of conservation land and lakes.Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch estimates the Corporate Park is home to more than 5,480 employees. The park has experienced tremendous growth since 1999, when the number of employees in the complex totaled only 290.

Some of the larger anchors in the Corporate Park are FCCI Insurance Group with a 260,000-square-foot office, Keiser University, Everglades University, Manatee Community College and WilsonMiller Engineering.

Just this past year, Gemesis Corp., the Lakewood Ranch-based producer of fancy color, laboratory-grown diamonds, held a groundbreaking ceremony announcing it plans to double the size of its existing 30,000-square-foot headquarters in the Corporate Park.

The company is constructing another 30,000-square-foot building directly behind its current office space that houses about 50 employees.

Another addition to the Corporate Park will soon be Gold Coast Eagle Distributing, the sole distributor of Anheuser-Busch and Corona products in Manatee and Sarasota counties. Gold Coast Eagle Distributing will add a two-story office building and 150,000-square-foot warehouse to the Corporate Park.

Tandem Construction & Fawley Bryant Architects is expected to be moving into a $6 million office building in the Corporate Park called Energy Court Center by May 2008. Willis A. Smith Construction, Lawson Group Architects, LLC & Tom Wessel Construction, Inc. and the Wellness Community are also soon scheduled to become part of the Corporate Park

Other businesses that have already been drawn to the Corporate Park in the last several years are Palm Printing, Teleflex, R.E. Crawford Construction Company, Super Gym, Tollgrade Communications and Miles Media.

Magnolia Green Office Park is also currently be constructed within the Corporate Park and will add approximately 500,000-square-feet of office space for businesses off University Parkway.