Business View Magazine | May 2019

69 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MAY 2019 in place, including power, water, and sewer lines for a 3,500-seat stadium between Veterans Memorial Park and the RP Funding Center, with land available to expand the stadium with an additional 1,500 seats, if necessary. “We hope to get more development, from that, whether it’s retail, restaurant, apartments and/or condos,” he adds. “So we’re excited to be part of that. We already have a developer that’s building a hotel to the east of us. We sold them our east parking lot, so they’re putting in a Marriott Spring Hill Suites. We already have a Hyatt Place on property, so that will double our hotel rooms and we believe that will be a huge influx for us.” “If I had to sum up in one word what’s going on here, that word would be ‘energy,’” says Oney. “In the last couple of years, certainly with our renovation, the naming rights, the addition of the Lakeland Magic and the Florida Tropics, it’s creating a new vibe; not just at the venue, here, but in downtown. The other word to describe what’s happening here is ‘connectivity.’ Our venue is an anchor and we’re trying to connect it with the downtown area. You’ve got five blocks between us and downtown and we’re trying to make that THE RP FUNDING CENTER