POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Lakeland is growing faster than most cities in the country. A new study ranks Swan City as one of the biggest boomtowns in the United States.
Mara Rutledge recently opened Meraki Bakehouse in Lakeland.
"I've been baking for a really long time. My mom always made cakes for everyone in the family," Rutledge said.
The new entrepreneur specializes in making croissants and cakes and she says business in Lakeland is booming.
"Lakeland is super supportive, more than what I could've imagined. I get the lines at the farmer's market every Saturday morning," Rutledge said.
According to a new study by LendingTree, a surge of new business owners like Rutledge is partly why Lakeland is ranked the third biggest boomtown in the country.
The report ranked rapidly growing cities by looking at housing growth, earnings, and new business increases. For example, the study found Lakeland had a 118% increase in new entrepreneurs in 2020-2021 compared to 2018-2019.
"Some of our members ended up closing their business due to the pandemic, but we also saw a spike in new members and new interests in entrepreneurship here in Lakeland," said Maggie Leach with Catapult.
Leach said this trend aligns with the uptick in memberships Catapult saw over the past year. The incubator for Lakeland entrepreneurs provides resources to help launch businesses, including Meraki Bakehouse.
"Maybe they experienced job change during the pandemic that drove them to say, hey, I can do this on my own and there are resources in my community, specifically in Lakeland," Leach said.
However, Lakeland city leaders said with rapid growth comes growing pains, including traffic congestion, lack of housing and providing an adequate water supply.
"Water and wastewater, we're working on projects that will make sure that we have the capacity that we need to support growth residentially and commercially," said Lakeland City Manager Shawn Sherrouse.
