OAKLAND, Fla. \u2014 A major new shopping and dining development is moving forward in Oakland, bringing 85,000 square feet of commercial space to a community experiencing rapid growth.<\/p>\n
Oakland Village is planned along State Road 50 next to existing commercial properties on more than 14 acres.<\/p>\n
The project is expected to include shops, restaurants and services, giving residents more options closer to home.<\/p>\n
Oakland is one of the fastest-growing communities in western Orange County, with its population jumping roughly 60% since 2020 \u2014 substantially faster than Orange County overall, which grew about 6.9%.<\/p>\n
Town Manager Elise Hui says the growth is continuing to reshape the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt continues to grow. People want to be here,\u201d Hui said. \u201cYou know, people are outgrowing Winter Garden and Clermont, so we\u2019re kind of the next place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Town leaders have approved Oakland Village, which will have a vibe like the successful Winter Park Village.<\/p>\n
Oakland Mayor Shane Taylor says residents have been asking for more places to spend time locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s something that our residents really, really want where they can have a place where they can shop local, eat local, and hang out locally,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n
The development could also play a role in Oakland\u2019s future tax base as Florida considers changes to property taxes under Amendment 3.<\/p>\n
Property taxes provide nearly 60% of Oakland\u2019s general fund revenue.<\/p>\n
Taylor says the town needs to expand its economic base with Amendment 3 on the ballot and in the hands of voters.<\/p>\n
Oakland\u2019s general tax base is dominated by residential property.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt creates an economic base that this town so sorely needs,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cFor the majority of this town, it\u2019s a residential base.\u201d<\/p>\n
Developer Alex Reece says the project is designed for the highway corridor and won\u2019t require the kind of major road changes that could affect the town\u2019s character.<\/p>\n
\u201cHighway 50 was built for this,\u201d Reece said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not like we\u2019re going inside of Oakland trying to put a big town center and trying to think about, okay, we\u2019ve got to take a two-lane road and move it to a four-lane road.\u201d<\/p>\n
The $35 million project is expected to begin construction in 2027.<\/p>\n
The town has already given the project its major approvals, with permitting and final site work still ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Fla. \u2014 A major new shopping and dining development is moving forward in Oakland, bringing 85,000 square…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[12862,6631,387,185434,100,143,145,144,611,8537,185432,136,185431,185433,5996],"class_list":["post-471477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-instagram-n13","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-randy-rauch","tag-top-stories","tag-topic-latest-local-business-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}