REAL Exclusive Magazine

My Favorite Bench Competition Attracts Over 30,000 Votes.

Friends and fans of eight important local entities have the opportunity to let their voices be heard as they vote for their favorite park bench in Lakewood Ranch’s new Central Park neighborhood. The group responsible for the winning bench will be designated as the “People’s Choice” and receive $1,000 from Neal Communities, the developer and one of the builders of Central Park. You can vote by logging onto www.centralpark-fl.com. You may vote as many as ten times a day. To date, almost 30,000 votes were casted and the contest will conclude on July 12, 2010 at noon.

The village, which is the first residential neighborhood north of State Road 70 in Lakewood Ranch, is being developed by Neal Communities. It is located on the east side of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, across from the Lakewood Ranch High School and YMCA.. B. D. Gullett Elementary School is on 44th Avenue, just across from the community’s north entrance. At completion, there will be about 800 homes in the 379-acre village.

The benches were painted by students from Lakewood Ranch High School, Gullett Elementary, Nolan Middle School, and Manatee Technical Institute, as well as three local professional artists. The professional artists, AnnMarie Nicholas, Janet Mishner and Sarah E. Taylor, painted benches on behalf of the Lakewood Ranch YMCA, The Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance, The Manatee County Board of Commissioners and the Manatee Chamber of Commerce.

“We created Central Park to fit the Lakewood Ranch lifestyle with the community feel we remember as children,” says Pat Neal, president of Neal Communities. “It is a neighborhood designed for walking, enjoying nature, tossing a Frisbee in the park and watching the friends play a casual game in the baseball field. People know their neighbors and watch out for each other.”
 
The eight benches will be placed within the village’s focal point—a ten-acre park that includes butterfly garden, nature paths, dog parks, splash fountains and a ballpark. Since the community—and especially the park—is themed after New York’s Central Park, the benches and are a key component and important element to the park’s overall look and feel.