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A Lakeland developer who bought the former Grenelefe Golf and Tennis Club in Haines City wants to build new homes and apartments on the former resort and golf course, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

The resort in northeast Polk County sprawls across 1,273 acres and once had three thriving golf courses, 22 tennis courts, a convention center, three restaurants, four swimming pools, a planned marina on Lake Marion and 417 resort-owned rental condominiums. Timeshare giant Westgate Resorts bought the property in 2004 and operated it for nearly two decades.

Westgate had been trying to unload it for years and in early 2022, the company found two buyers: Alya Grenelefe LLC paid $31.5 million for 417 condominiums, and Grenelefe Resort Development LLC, led by Ronin Assets founder Scott House, paid $3.1 million for the golf and tennis facilities, 15 lake loft condos and the private utility that services the entire community.

House will meet with Polk County’s Development Review Committee this week to unveil his ambitious plan to redevelop the property with nearly 1,900 homes, townhomes, duplexes and apartments on the 536.6 acres. read more

By PAUL WISEMAN (AP Economics Writer)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to keep up with customer demand, Batesville Tool & Die began seeking 70 people to hire last year. It wasn’t easy. Attracting factory workers to a community of 7,300 in the Indiana countryside was a tough sell, especially having to compete with big-name manufacturers nearby like Honda and Cummins Engine.

Job seekers were scarce.

“You could count on one hand how many people in the town were unemployed,” said Jody Fledderman, the CEO. “It was just crazy.’’

Batesville Tool & Die managed to fill just 40 of its vacancies.

Enter the robots. The company invested in machines that could mimic human workers and in vision systems, which helped its robots “see” what they were doing.

The Batesville experience and others like it have been replicated countlessly across the United States for the past couple of years. Chronic worker shortages have led many companies to invest in machines to do some of the work they can’t find people to do. They’ve also been training the workers they do have to use advanced technology so they can produce more with less. read more