Johnsons Village Marketplace

The new boutique market experience is more than shopping, Johnsons Village Marketplace will offer fresh and fun food experiences for the whole family. The spacious, air-conditioned barn is set within a large plaza with umbrella-shaded tables. Across the courtyard are Airstream food trailers for quick and tasty bites and the Cider Shack, which offers refreshing beer, wine, cider, and other beverages that pair with the market’s selections of fresh produce, meats, cheeses, pastas, and more. There’s live entertainment, free Wi-Fi, and even a self-serve dog wash station named “Dirty Dogs Done Dirt Cheap.”

Fresh and Hyper-local (coming soon)

Located just across the street, the Victory Point Aquaponics Farm will be supplying specialty greens, vegetables, herbs, and flowers to Johnsons Village Marketplace. This includes lettuces, kale, cucumbers, cilantro, basil, broccoli, mint, and more.

What is aquaponics? It’s the combination of aquaculture (raising aquatic animals, like fish) and hydroponics, which is growing plants in water without soil. By merging these two processes, produce is grown in a very sustainable and ecological way. The water that the fish live in provides nitrogen-rich nutrients to the plants, which then clean the water before it’s recycled back into the fish tanks.

The result is organically grown vegetables and greens that eliminates the use of chemicals while conserving land and water resources.

Hills of Minneola

If you haven’t driven past Hancock Road, near the Florida Turnpike, you’ll probably be surprised. There are 2,200 single-family houses and apartment units, along with a town center that houses Publix, Starbucks, McDonalds, Great Clips, The UPS Store, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Papa Johns, AT&T, Encore Nail & Spa, Dental Care of Minneola And..Chipotle Mexican Grill will build on the last remaining parcel in front of Publix at the corner of Hancock and Citrus Grove Road.

 

And Coming Soon To the Hills of Minneola

Crooked Can Brewing Company will build a facility (approximately 40,000 sq ft) with a tap room, food hall, brewery, event space and headquarters in the Hills of Minneola area.  The facility will break ground once receiving approvals from the City of Minneola. 
 

CLERMONT ON HWY 50

Wendy’s Restaurant and Ashley Furniture are coming to Clermont. The property is fronting the south side of SR 50, between Ray Goodgame Parkway and Magnolia Pointe Boulevard. 

Clermont – The Olympus Sports Campus  

Olympus rendering

NHL legend Phil Esposito, founder of the Tampa Bay Lightning, is now the founding member of the Ice Center at Olympus, which will feature two NHL regulation ice surfaces for ice hockey and figure skating training and competition.Boston-based EDGE Sports Group, the premier athletic ecosystem specialists, has developed a strategic partnership with Olympus to facilitate development, design and management of the 60-acre Sports Campus at Olympus.Broadcast Service Group will bring full-service broadcast and video production services to the Sports Campus, ensuring that venues are always broadcast-ready.The project includes:

      • 1 million square feet of sports and entertainment venues
      • 1,000 residential units
      • 1,300 hotel rooms
      • 1 million square feet of retail, restaurant and office space
      • 130,000 square feet of conference space

Construction of five major sports venues will include a Championship red-clay tennis complex, Soccer Complex, Ice-sports center, Criterium course, and the Olympus Athlete Center. At the heart of the Athlete Center is Olympus Performance Institute, which will provide cutting-edge technology and amenities for athletes to train, improve, refine and recover with elite-level strength and conditioning and athletic training. (HorizonWestInfo Team)

Lake Catherine Blueberry Farm

The City of GROVELAND (information gathered by Marty Proctor, South Lake Tablet)

Justin Lowe, his wife, and parents own Lake Catherine Blueberries.  Justin represents the fourth generation to work the farm.  His son and daughter are the fifth generations. Last year, they received a nod by the city of Groveland to annex their property into the City limits. This paves the way for The “Village” category of the City’s current land use plan.  This is termed Phase One of the Plans.  This initial development will be highly visible along SR 19. The Village concept requires a preservation of 30+% open space. Tim Maslow, Groveland’s community development director, says, “the village is intended to be very agrarian, preserving a lot of the farmland and making the land open spaces.  It’s a family-oriented development.”

The City’s new vision of agrarian urbanism is inspiring and empowering the Lowes to come up with a farmland-based agri-tourism plan for the whole property.  Tim added, “they’re really the first ones to do that.  They looked at both the village and hamlet categories. We felt like the village density made sense as it was close to downtown.” The intention is to finish phase one prior to the completion of the SR 50 realignment and South Lake Trail segments in downtown Groveland. Concepts include a farm-to-table restaurant, office space, and upstairs residential.  There are also discussions of a distillery and brewery that will likely highlight hops grown on the farm alongside other more typical food crops.  “Thirty percent of the space will be kept in agriculture to provide produce (fruit, vegetables, that sort of thing) to the local community,” Dustin elaborated, “We are not considering transitioning away from blueberries.  We intend to incorporate blueberries with a wider variety of produce for the local community.”The blueberry farm also will continue to operate and possibly expand.

 
Readers want to know what’s happening in their corner of the world. Contact news@SLTABLET.com  if you hear something the community may be interested in knowing, The SOUTH LAKE TABLET will spread the news.

 

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