Lake County approaches construction phase for E-STEM school in Four Corners

Lake County is moving forward with plans to build a new E-STEM school in the fast-growing Four Corners area.

According to a recently filed environmental resource permit in the St. Johns River Water Management District, Lake County Schools is entering the construction permitting phase for the future K-8 school at 801 Cagan View Road. The school is slated to open in fall 2021.

Plans call for a 143,372-square-foot school building and a single-story 17,400-square-foot gymnasium. Other features include parking areas, parent drop-off area, bus loop, track and field event facilities and playfields.

The $33 million project is one of the first public science, technology, engineering and math schools in Florida that will focus its programs on environmental studies — hence the E in E-STEM, which stands for environmental.

Parking calculations in the submitted site plans shows the E-STEM school could hold up to 1,420 students and 125 school staff employees. The new building’s core spaces include a state-of-the-art STEM Lab for all grades, Skill Career Labs including Culinary Arts and grade-level appropriate media labs dispersed throughout the school.

Zyscovich Architects is designing the school. Klima Weeks Civil Engineering is the civil engineer on the project. Sanford-based Wharton-Smith Inc. is the contractor.

“It’s an incredible time to design a school for young people,” Zyscovich Partner Jose Murguido said in an earlier release. “It’s incredible because the economy is shifting so quickly that the jobs, we are preparing our young are somewhat undefined at this point.…Whatever those jobs are, our students will need to be curious, creative, collaborative, caring and problem-solving people to thrive in those time. There’s so much excitement happening, and while this is going on there’s also magnificent things happening in cognitive development and understanding how children learn. Those are the things that are shaping the ideas that are creating the vision of this project.”

The School Board of Lake County purchased the roughly 40-acre site from Cagan Crossings developer Jeffrey Cagan in 2015 for $3.25 million.

The Cagan Management Group president and CEO told GrowthSpotter horizontal site work for the school is underway.

“There’s a need for schools in the area,” Cagan said. “This is a big thing and we’re excited about it... I imagine with the library and all apartments the school will make Cagan Crossings more of a community.”

A new Pinecrest Academy opened last year around the corner. The K-8 charter school took over a former Winn Dixie supermarket site at 100 U.S. Highway 27, about a mile north of U.S. Highway 192.

CMG is close to completing Orchard at Cagan Crossings, a 152-unit adult living project.

Other multifamily projects within the master-planned community include the 434-unit Aurora at Cagan Crossings; the 560-unit Ridgepointe at Cagan Crossings community; and Glen and Glen II at Cagan Crossings, which consists of 412 apartments.

Among its Town Center attractions includes the Orlando Cat Café, a partnership of CMG, SPCA Florida and Axum Coffee that features free-roaming, adoptable cats on site.

Last year, the company announced plans for a 323-lot single-family home subdivision that will be developed by Meritage Homes.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at arabines@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-5427, or tweet me at @amanda_rabines. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.