A Walmart Neighborhood Market is coming to Hammock Oaks in Lady Lake.
The Lady Lake Town Commission this month unanimously approved the site plan for the grocery-anchored shopping center within the Hammock Oaks PUD, on the southeast corner of Cherry Lake Road and County Road 466.
The 45,603-square-foot supermarket will have an attached pharmacy with drive-thru service and a package store. A 16-pump Walmart fuel station with grab-and-go kiosk will go on one of the six remaining lots in the center. They’ll occupy about 12.5 acres of the 21-acre retail site, according to plans by architecture firm Core States Group and civil engineer CPH.
The property is owned by Venture South Investments, a Georgia firm that specializes in grocery-anchored retail centers. VSI bought the 21-acre parcel last August for $6.1 million. Initially, Walmart submitted plans for a 60,724-square-foot store. However, town commissioners asked the developer to save more of the historic trees on site. The initial plan was to eliminate eight of the historic oaks. Under the new plan, they will only cut down two.
Last year, Walmart committed to opening or converting 150 neighborhood market stores over the following five years. These stores are larger with most of the gains in the produce, meat, dairy and bakery departments. They also have more space for pickup and delivery orders.
There is currently a Walmart Neighborhood Market in the Sumter County portion of The Villages on Heald Way, just off of County Road 466-A. A Walmart Supercenter is planned for State Road 44 and Morse Boulevard in front of The Villages Grown processing plant in Sumter County.
Lady Lake is also home to Lake County’s only Sam’s Club membership warehouse store, which opened in 2009 on U.S. 27/441.
The new neighborhood market in Lady Lake will sit on about 12.5 acres within the boundaries of Hammock Oaks, a Kolter development. A second development, The Reserve at Hammock Oaks, abuts Hammock Oaks to the south.
In total, the two developments encompass more than 800 acres between CR 466 and Lake Ella Road and between Cherry Lake Road and Rolling Acres Road. They are entitled for more than 2,500 homes, a mix of townhomes, single-family homes, age-restricted homes and apartments.
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