Howey-in-the-Hills doesn’t have a Publix store yet, but a new development coming to the rapidly growing Lake County town will change that.
The new Publix location will be part of the approved, 264-acre Lake Hills community, consisting of a gated subdivision with 571 home lots from developer Reader Communities. The community will be located at 10325 FL-48, directly north of the Mission Resort + Club.
The commercial portion will be situated on roughly 18.5 acres in the southeastern corner of the property. A preliminary site plan from Madden, Moorhead, & Stokes indicates that there will be a 50,800-square-foot grocery store next to an adjoining 2,100-square-foot liquor store and 8,400-square-foot retail space.
An additional four outparcels with a combined 8 acres are set aside for future commercial/retail development. While the site plan doesn’t specify what will be built on those parcels, the Lake Hills PUD was previously approved for up to 150,000 square feet of commercial space.
Publix recently purchased the land for their future grocery store for just under $2 million. Publix spokesperson Hannah Herring told GrowthSpotter that the company doesn’t yet have a timeline for when they expect to break ground on the building.
“Very little information is available this early, but I can confirm we do have a site for a future Publix in Howey-in-the-Hills,” she said.
The 220-acre residential portion of Lake Hills will be built over five phases and will feature two gated entrances. It will consist of 473 single-family homes, 321 of which will be built on 50-foot-wide lots and 152 of which will be built on 60-foot-wide lots. The remaining 98 houses will be duplex homes built on 40-foot-wide lots. Additionally, the western edge of the community features a 22-acre parcel that will be the home of a future public school.
Reader Communities plans on preserving 66 acres as open space, some of which will be set aside for a 4.2-acre park near the future Publix. There will be an additional 6.36-acre recreational space further into the community that will feature a community dock on Lake Harris. Several of the homes that front the lake will also have private docks. The community, which will be age-restricted for adults 55 and older, will also facilitate an active lifestyle with the addition of biking and pedestrian trails throughout the community.
Representatives from Reader Communities did not respond to requests for comment.
The residential portion of the community will consist of 571 homes. The publix will be located in the southeastern portion of the property. (Site plan from Madden, Moorhead, & Stokes)
The homes will b built over five phases. (Site plan from Madden, Moorhead, & Stokes)
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The residential portion of the community will consist of 571 homes. The publix will be located in the southeastern portion of the property. (Site plan from Madden, Moorhead, & Stokes)
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Homebuilder K. Hovnanian previously proposed building a Four Seasons-branded, age-restricted community on the property in 2021. The community would have included 650 home lots, representing a higher-density project than the current plans from Reader Communities.
A now-outdated conceptual site plan showed plans for 292 paired villas on 35-foot-wide home lots and 254 cottage homes on lots with a width of 50 feet. There would have also been 104 single-family homes on 60-foot wide lots. Kelly Thomas, Vice President of Land Acquisitions at K. Hovnanian Homes told GrowthSpotter that the company previously had the land under contract but that the project fell through.
The Lake Hills PUD was originally approved in 2011 to allow for up to 780 homes on the property. In April, the Howey-in-the-Hills Town Council approved the latest plans submitted by Reader Communities.
Howey-in-the-Hills had a population of only 1,261 as of the 2020 Census count, but there is an extensive development pipeline in the works for the town considering the municipality’s small population. In May, the Howey-in-the-Hills Town Council approved development plans for Mission Rise, which calls for 415 homes on a 243-acre L-shaped property south of Number Two Road, east of Silverwood Lane, and west of State Road 19. The approved plans represent a scaled-down version of previous proposals. For example, plans submitted to the town last year called for nearly 600 homes.
Lennar Homes has plans for a 728-home community on 375 acres between U.S.19 and Number Two Road. The community will feature a pool and a clubhouse, as well as 14 pocket parks and 4.5 miles of bike trails that will connect with other trails throughout the town.
Additionally, the Howey-in-the-Hills Town Council voted to approve plans for a gated community of 156 lots off of Little Lake Harris. D.R. Horton also recently wrapped up construction on the last phase of the Venezia community, located at 100 S. Florida Ave.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)607-8160 or TyWilliams@GrowthSpotter.com. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.
