‘Everything comes full circle.’ Booming Lakewood Ranch is adding a funeral home
In the 27 years since ground was broken for the first home at Lakewood Ranch, the population has swelled to more than 42,000.
And there is plenty of room for more people in the 48-square-mile master planned community.
With amenities galore, including polo grounds, golf courses, sprawling sports fields, a hospital, schools, and even a cricket field, Lakewood Ranch seemed to have everything to allow residents to embrace the motto “live, work, play.”
Yet the cycle of life remained incomplete. Lakewood Ranch lacked a funeral home.
But not for much longer.
Dignity Memorial Providers of Florida recently broke ground on the Robert Toale & Sons Lakewood Ranch funeral home, identified on an artist’s conception as Lakewood Ranch Celebration of Life Center. Completion is forecast for January 2022.
THE BEGINNING
Robert and Charlene Schmitt were among the first 50 families to move into Lakewood Ranch in 1995, and their daughter, Kristen, was the first newborn at Lakewood Ranch.
“It’s amazing how everything comes full circle so fast,” Bob Schmitt said Wednesday.
Schmitt, an urban planner with Land Planning Associates Inc., said a funeral home is an essential service for a growing community.
“People have aged in that time,” said Schmitt, who is now expecting his first grandchild. “It is interesting to see how the community has developed.”
THE SITE
The funeral home, to be located near the corner of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and 44th Avenue East, will be filled with high-tech equipment for multimedia celebrations, as well as a multipurpose event center. Event planners on staff will help develop life-story vignettes for celebration of life events. A flexible, open design will also serve as a venue for catered receptions and community gatherings, the company says.
Sarasota-based Kellogg & Kimsey Inc. is the general contractor for the project.
“We have enjoyed being a construction partner with Robert Toale and Sons, having built the original building and the subsequent renovation and addition of the venue at Palms Memorial Park on Honore Avenue in Sarasota. Kellogg & Kimsey is blessed to now have the opportunity to build a brand new location in Lakewood Ranch that will compassionately serve the families in that area,” Charles Kimsey, executive vice president, said in a statement.
Lisa M. Barnott, director of marketing and communication for developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, confirmed that Robert Toale & Sons Lakewood Ranch will be the community’s first funeral home.
But there are no plans for a cemetery at Lakewood Ranch, she said. The Lakewood Ranch location will refer families to the existing cemeteries of Manasota Memorial Park, Palms Memorial Park, and Mansion Memorial Park.
“We also work with the Sarasota National Cemetery for our veteran community,” Duane LaFollett, general manager, said in an email.
BUILDING BOOM
There seems to be no end in sight to growth at Lakewood Ranch, where buyers snapped up a record 2,149 new homes in 2020, 501 more than in 2019.
The 30 percent increase in sales year-over-year set a sales record for Lakewood Ranch, which was already the best-selling, master-planned multi-generational community in the country for the third year, according to independent real estate consulting firms John Burns and RCLCO.
In March, Forestar Group Inc. held a groundbreaking for Star Farms, a gated community, planned for 1,500 residences on 700 acres that would be Lakewood Ranch’s 32nd village.
Waterside, Schroeder-Manatee Ranch’s first village in Sarasota County, is planned for more than 5,000 homes. All neighborhoods will be connected to Waterside Place, the town center, by trails and water taxis. The town center is expected to open by late summer.
This story was originally published May 13, 2021 at 1:16 PM.
