It was a symbolic day for Lakeland. On the same day that the last piece of the old Lakeland Factory Outlet Mall was torn down, the city’s 160-plus-acre mixed-use Lake District project celebrated another milestone – its first tenant.

Known as The Stock Market, the upscale grocery store will be operated by independent retailer Jeff Burkhead, who is also the owner of Cash Saver East Memphis.

“We’ve had a desire for a long time to do a project out here,” Burkhead told crowd that was gathered Thursday, March 1, to watch the mall’s last remaining wall come down. “In this market, we lack a supermarket that can provide you a great perishable, a great variety of specialty and upscale products, but also provide you with those traditional staples every household wants to have.”

On the same day that the last piece of the Old Lakeland Factory Outlet Mall was torn down, The Lake District announced its first tenant. 

(Gilad Development)

Burkhead told the crowd that in addition to having a wide variety of goods, The Stock Market would excel at the “basics” of being clean, fresh, friendly, adequately stocked, and competitively priced.

The Shopping Center Group partner Shawn Massey, who is the retail leasing agent for the Lake District, worked directly with landlord Gilad Development’s Maggie Gallagher to bring The Stock Market to Lakeland.

“We wanted a supermarket that would reflect the overall experience of the Lake District,” Massey said. “Working to create that took the work of a team who had to think outside of the box.”

Gilad president Yehuda Netanel promised that this was only one of a series of future events he is planning for the community as the Lake District moves forward.

“It’s the first tenant and the most important tenant for the time being because nothing can happen unless we can be fed,” Netanel said.

Lakeland Mayor Wyatt Bunker was on hand to personally demo the last freestanding section of the Lakeland Factory Outlet Mall.

“I keep thinking back to that time when a lot of us as Lakeland citizens were doubting whether or not this project would move forward, so milestones like this are not only significant to this project, but it’s significant to our confidence in this project and significant to our city as a whole,” Bunker said before climbing into a hydraulic excavator and tipping part of the wall over.

Moving forward, Gallagher, Gilad’s director of development, said she expects vertical construction to be seen by mid-2019.

“We have, moving forward now, about a half million cubic yards of dirt to move after this wall comes down, so that’s going to take a little bit of time,” Gallagher said.