Redevelopment Opportunity

Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. Located along I-4 east of Tampa and west of Orlando, it is the most populous city in Polk County. As of the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal city of the Lakeland–Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lakeland is situated among several lakes including Lake Morton downtown and is sometimes locally referred to by the nickname "Swan City" due to its sizeable population of swans, all of whom are descendants of two mute swans given to Lakeland by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. Lakeland is home to several colleges and universities. Lakeland Linder International Airport is in Lakeland as is the corporate headquarters of Publix, a supermarket chain. European-American settlers arrived in Lakeland from Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina in the 1870s. The city expanded in the 1880s with the arrival of rail service, with the first freedmen railway workers settling here in 1883. They and European immigrants also came because of land development opportunities with farming, citrus, cattle and phosphate industry developing. Lakeland is home to the 1,267-acre Circle B Bar Reserve. Polk County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. The county population was 725,046, as of the 2020 census, and estimated to be 818,330, as of July 1, 2023. Its county seat is Bartow, and its largest city is Lakeland. Polk County comprises the Lakeland–Winter Haven metropolitan statistical area (MSA). This MSA is the 77th-most populous one and the 89th-most populous primary statistical area of the United States as of July 1, 2012. The center of population of Florida is located in Polk County, near the city of Lake Wales. Polk County is home to one public university, one state college, and four private universities..