Most people watching the corner of US 441 and SE 119th Place in Belleview are waiting for the same thing: a sign, a fence, maybe a building pad. They think the story starts when construction crews show up. It doesn't. By the time anyone sees steel going up on that 24.45-acre site, the land underneath it will have already changed value three times over, through paperwork most residents never read.
If you're weighing Belleview against Ocala or Summerfield right now, that paperwork matters more than the eventual ribbon-cutting. Here's the sequence that actually moved the price, and what it tells you about buying near a corridor before the rest of the market catches up.
What Actually Happened, in Order
In April 2025, Leaders Real Estate walked into a Belleview City Commission meeting with a pitch for the corner of 441 and SE 119th Place: a big-box retailer, a gas station, roughly 22,500 square feet of additional retail and restaurant space, and a future phase reserved for multi-family housing. The catch was that Leaders needed the city and county to kick in $2,500,000 in incentives, mostly through waived permitting and impact fees, to make the numbers work.
By November 2025, the City Commission had approved two land-use ordinances tied to the project. One, Ordinance 2025-10, annexed a 12.35-acre parcel behind the old Look-A-Like Plaza, owned by E2 Farm, into city limits. Commissioner Bo Smith cast the only dissenting vote on either measure. Nobody in public comment objected. The staff report described the parcel's future role in plain terms: part of the retail footprint, part of the stormwater system the project would need.
That same 12.35-acre parcel showed up again six months later. A public hearing scheduled for May 21, 2026 covered Ordinance 2026-05, a comprehensive plan amendment reclassifying the land from Employment Center under Marion County's designation to Commercial under Belleview's, with zoning moving from A-1 to B-5, filed on behalf of Leaders Companies LLC. Annexation had put the land inside city limits. Seven months later, the rezoning gave it the commercial classification the project actually needed. Two separate votes, two separate dates, same acreage, same developer relationship.
Then, on June 5, 2026, the actual purchase happened. A company called LRE Belleview LLC, tied to Leaders, closed on 24.45 acres for $3,750,000, consolidating three separate parcels: the already-commercial 12.95 acres that included the shuttered Look-A-Like Plaza (former home to Juniper Landscaping, Semper Fi Heat and A/C, Village Cart Works, and several other local tenants), a 4.05-acre lot once used by Contractors Supply of Central Florida alongside a nursery operation, and an 11.5-acre parcel bought directly from Carole Anne DeLucian, Katina Leigh Heflin, and Wesley Stuart DeLucian.
| Date | Action | Who | What It Signaled |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2025 | Public pitch for big-box, gas station, retail, future multifamily; $2.5M incentive request | Leaders Real Estate | Land alone wasn't priced for the project without public help |
| November 2025 | Ordinance 2025-10 annexes 12.35 acres into city limits | City of Belleview, E2 Farm | Utilities and zoning control had to move first |
| May 21, 2026 | Ordinance 2026-05 rezones the same 12.35 acres from Employment Center/A-1 to Commercial/B-5 | City of Belleview, Leaders Companies LLC | The parcel got the classification the project needed |
| June 5, 2026 | 24.45 acres purchased across three parcels for $3.75 million | LRE Belleview LLC | The assemblage was complete; land was now worth building on |
Notice what's missing from that table: a tenant. As of this writing, the site is being marketed with a planned ±150,000-square-foot center anchored by what Leaders describes only as a Fortune 100 grocer, plus outparcels built for drive-thru concepts like quick-service restaurants and coffee shops. The gas station and the multifamily phase from the original 2025 pitch aren't part of the current marketing package. The project already changed shape once before a single wall went up. If you're underwriting what this corridor will look like based on the first announcement you read, you're already working from an outdated plan.
Why the Developer Needed the City's Money First
The $2.5 million incentive ask is the most useful number in this whole file, because it tells you what the raw land was actually worth on its own. According to the original proposal, the project was projected to cost roughly $1,360,300 in permitting and impact fees alone, split between about $1,040,500 owed to the city and $319,800 owed to the county. Leaders asked for those fees to be waived or offset, along with grants and potential property tax abatements, to make the project financially feasible. In exchange, the company pointed to about 400 new jobs and projected annual sales and property tax revenue of roughly $155,000 for Belleview and $520,000 for Marion County as a whole.
That's not a developer looking for free money on a sure thing. That's a developer telling the city, in writing, that the corridor's existing land value didn't yet support the rents a national grocery chain would need to pay. The letter to the commission put it plainly: the project would be, in the company's words, "a catalyst for economic growth" for Belleview. Catalysts are what you bring in when the reaction wouldn't happen on its own. The incentive request is the tell. The land wasn't worth $3.75 million as three unremarkable parcels along a highway. It became worth that once the city agreed to shoulder part of the cost of turning it into something else.
Annexation Comes Before the Announcement, Not After
The 12.35-acre E2 Farm parcel is the piece of this story most buyers will never notice, and it's the most instructive one. That land sat in unincorporated Marion County, zoned agricultural, surrounded by other ag parcels, months before anyone outside city hall knew what was planned for it. Annexing it into Belleview city limits in November 2025 didn't authorize construction. It did something quieter and more important: it moved the parcel under city utility service and city zoning control, which is the precondition for any large commercial build in that location.
If you own land, or are considering buying land, anywhere near a growth corridor in Marion County, this is the filing to watch. Rezoning gets the headlines. Annexation is what makes rezoning possible. By the time a project is public enough to make the news, the annexation step is usually already done, and the value shift has already started.
What's Still Not Public, and Why That's the Part to Track
A few things about this project are still open, and they're the reason this isn't a finished story yet:
- The grocer's name hasn't been released. Leaders has only confirmed it fits the Fortune 100 category.
- The current site plan makes no mention of the gas station or multifamily phase from the original 2025 pitch.
- Reporting from late 2025 noted that multiple parcels tied to the same ownership group were already moving through infrastructure review, beyond the 24.45 acres purchased in June.
That last point matters most for anyone trying to time a purchase near this corridor. If additional parcels near the E2 Farm annexation are still working through the pipeline, the land assembly on this stretch of 441 likely isn't finished. Belleview's Development Services Department maintains an interactive map specifically so residents can track annexations and large-scale projects before they hit the news. For anyone with land or a home within a mile of SE 119th Place, checking that map periodically is a better early-warning system than waiting for a press release.
What This Means If You're Comparing Belleview to Ocala or Summerfield
Leaders' own marketing materials list the trade area around this site at roughly 25,266 people within three miles and an average household income near $74,215, numbers a national grocer's real estate team would have run before agreeing to anchor anything. The corridor already carries about 25,000 vehicles a day, and a new signalized intersection at SE 119th Place is part of the plan, which should ease some of that flow once it's built.
For a buyer weighing daily convenience, that's a real point in Belleview's favor over the next few years: closer grocery access without the drive north to Ocala or south toward The Villages. For a seller on or near this stretch of 441, the annexation and rezoning history is documentable, public-record evidence of forward investment, which is worth more in a listing conversation than a vague reference to "growth in the area." For anyone buying land nearby with an eye toward future use, the lesson is the same one that runs through this whole file: the paperwork moves first, the value follows, and the building comes last.
Is this the same project as the Publix-anchored Belleview Regional Shopping Center on 301/441/27? No. That center, home to a Publix, Publix Liquor Store, and other established tenants, underwent its own renovation in 2021 and is a separate, already-operating property. The Leaders project is a new build at the 441 and SE 119th Place intersection.
When will construction actually start? No public timeline has been released as of this writing. The site is still being marketed for lease and build-to-suit opportunities, which typically precedes a construction start by a meaningful stretch.
How can I keep an eye on this without checking the news every week? Belleview's Development Services Department publishes an interactive development map covering annexations and large-scale projects citywide, and the city's legal notices page lists upcoming ordinance hearings before they're voted on. Both are free and public.
If you own property near this corridor, are weighing a purchase on 441, or just want a straight read on what a filing like this actually means for your plans, The Pritt Team is a phone call away. No pressure, no sales pitch, just someone who reads these filings for a living. Let's Connect.
