Homebuyer Summer 2022

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BUYER

summer 2022

Custom home by Derrick Builders Inc.

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Pictures, photographs, colors, features, and sizes are for illustration purposes only and will vary from the homes as built. Home and community information including pricing, included features, terms, availability and amenities are subject to change and prior sale at any time without notice or obligation. This material shall not constitute a valid offer in any state prior registration is required or if void by law. See New Home Counselor for details. CRC 1330351 CGC 1520474

CENTRAL FLORIDA’S

Hometown

BUILDER

4

STETSON UNIVERSITY

17

75

4

LAKE EUSTIS

1

LAKE MONROE

MT. DORA 415

TOLL

453

LAKE HARRIS

WEKIWA SPRINGS STATE PARK

ORLANDO SANFORD INTL’ AIRPORT

4 LAKE MARY BLVD

TOLL

2

429

ALTAMONTE MALL

75

TOLL

417

LAKE APOPKA

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORID

TOLL

408

3 4 75

THE MALL AT MILLENIA

UNIVERSAL ORLANDO RESORT 4

FLORIDA MALL

TOLL

TOLL

528

TOLL

429

BEACHLINE

528

ORLANDO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

PREMIUM OUTLETS

SEAWORLD TOLL

WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT

417

PREMIUM OUTLETS ce E Os

wy ola Pk

4

5

EAST LAKE TOHO

6

Wesley Chapel

LAKE TOHOPEKALIGA

4

7

275

75 Lake Gibson

Lake Parker

275

4

Lakeland

17

8

4

4 Selmon Expressway

275

75

St. Petersburg

1

Summerbrooke

6

Aviana

2

Mission Inn Resort & Club, Las Colinas

7

Cypress Park Estates

Avalon Ridge

8

3

Tarpon Bay

Mezzano

9

4

Marisol Pointe at MiraBay

5

Wyndrush Creek

10

North River Ranch

275

9 75 Lake Parrish

10

275

Bradenton

Sarasota 75

Built for Family, by Family.

Home and community information including pricing, included features, terms, availability and amenities are subject to change and prior sale at any time without notice or obligation. This material shall not constitute a valid offer in any state where prior registration is required or if void by law.

051822

HOME

FROM THE PUBLISHER DOOMSAYERS AREN’T TALKING ABOUT ORLANDO Yep, it’s all over the headlines.

The real estate market is tanking; the sky is falling. Inventory is up; the world is coming to an end. Those talking heads do love to hear themselves spread doom and gloom throughout the land.

The problem is, most of them are looking at real estate trends in the country as whole — so we get bundled together with places like Yuma, Arizona.

Before you say anything, yes, I have been to Yuma, Arizona. It’s a fine place for people who want to live in the middle of nowhere, where the landscape is various shades of brown, it’s always over 100 degrees and career opportunities are limited.

Let’s agree that type of community has limited appeal, so the housing numbers in Yuma

CENTRAL FLORIDA EDITION

would, naturally, be vastly different than ours.

So, what’s happening in Central Florida’s real estate market? Simply put, it is still a seller’s market. Granted, the frenzied buying has slowed down and the number of homes available have increased slightly — but demand is still outpacing supply.

Folks with the means to buy at the top of the market have bought, so they’re no longer in the market. Rising prices and interest rates have knocked other buyers out of the market.

In normal times, we’d have about sixmonths’ worth of housing inventory locally.

As of this writing, however, Central Florida was sitting at just over one months’ worth of inventory.

BUYER

THERESA SWANSON Group Publisher/Director of Sales RANDY NOLES Editor and Publisher PHYLLIS M. MILLER Director of Administration TINA ROBERS Art Director MYRON CARDEN Distribution Manager MICHAEL CANDELARIA, MARY SHANKLIN, PATRICIA LETAKIS Contributing Writers HARRY WESSEL Contributing Editor W int e r Pa r k Pu b l is hing Co m pa ny L LC

RANDY NOLES Chief Executive Officer ALLAN E. KEEN Co-Chairman, Board of Managers JANE HAMES Co-Chairman, Board of Managers THERESA SWANSON Vice Chairman, Board of Managers

THERESA SWANSON Group Publisher theresa@thefloridahomebuyer.com

MICHAEL OKATY, ESQ. General Counsel, Foley & Lardner LLP Co m m u nit y Pa rt ne r s

CONTENTS | S U M M E R DEPARTMENTS 2 FROM THE PUBLISHER 4 FEATURED BUILDER

For Jordan Homes, building dreams is a true family affair. By Patricia Letakis 6 FEATURED COMMUNITY

Bellalago wows buyers with a verdant setting on beautiful Lake Toho.

By Patricia Letakis

2022

24 OUR TOWNS

There’s something for everyone in Central Florida. Let’s take a tour and you can see for yourself. By Michael Candelaria

RESOURCES 50 PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Contact Us

60 COMMUNITIES

FEATURES 9 MANOR

Paul Waters says running a hands-on business is the secret to success in the custom-home market. By Patricia Letakis

HOME HOME HOME CENTRAL FLORIDA EDITION thefloridahomebuyer.com

BUYER

summer 2022

14 CATCH THE WAVE

Tavistock’s new hotel in Lake Nona offers an art impression experience.

By Connie Sue White 20 THOUGHTFUL APPROACH

Lake Nona’s new neighborhoods offer plenty of variety.

By Michael Candelaria

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CENTRAL FLORIDA EDITION thefloridahomebuyer.com

BUYER

summer 2022

Custom home by Derrick Builders Inc.

REGIONAL RELOCATION GUIDE • ACTIVE ADULT COMMUNITIES • School Guide

CENTRAL FLORIDA EDITION thefloridahomebuyer.com

Homebuyer: Central Florida Edition 201 West Canton Avenue, Suite 125B Winter Park, Florida 32789 Phone: 407-647-0225 thefloridahomebuyer.com

BUYER

summer 2022

Custom home by Silliman CitySide Homes

REGIONAL RELOCATION GUIDE • ACTIVE ADULT COMMUNITIES • School Guide

Custom home by Stonebridge Homes

REGIONAL RELOCATION GUIDE • ACTIVE ADULT COMMUNITIES • School Guide

ON THE COVER Readers of this issue of Homebuyer: Central Florida Edition may see one of three covers: one is a custom home by Derrick Builders; one is a custom home by Silliman CitySide; and one is a custom home by Stonebridge Homes.

H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

Larry and Joanne Adams; The Albertson Company, Ltd.; Richard O. Baldwin Jr.; Jim and Diana Barnes; Brad Blum; Ken and Ruth Bradley; John and Dede Caron; Bruce Douglas; Steve Goldman; Hal George; Michael Gonick; Micky Grindstaff; Sharon and Marc Hagle; Larry and Jane Hames; Eric and Diane Holm; Garry and Isis Jones; Allan E. and Linda S. Keen; Knob Hill Group (Rick and Trish Walsh, Jim and Beth DeSimone, Chris Schmidt); FAN Fund; Kevin and Jacqueline Maddron; Drew and Paula Madsen; Kenneth J. Meister; Ann Hicks Murrah; Jack Myers; Michael P. O’Donnell; Nicole and Mike Okaty; Bill and Jody Orosz; Martin and Ellen Prague; Serge and Kerri Rivera; Jon C. and Theresa Swanson; Sam and Heather Stark; Randall B. Robertson; George Sprinkel; Philip Tiedtke; Roger K. Thompson; Ed Timberlake; Harold and Libby Ward; Warren “Chip” Weston; Tom and Penny Yochum; and Victor and Jackie A. Zollo.

Homebuyer: Central Florida Edition Winter 2022 is published quarterly by Winter Park Publishing Company LLC, 201 West Canton Avenue, Suite 125B, Winter Park, Florida 32789. Copyright 2022 by Winter Park Publishing Company LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Send all correspondence to Homebuyer: Central Florida Edition, 201 West Canton Avenue, Suite 125B, Winter Park, Florida 32789. Unsolicited manuscripts without return postage will not be returned. DISCLAIMER: Advertisements in this publication do not constitute an offer for sale in any state or country where prohibited or restricted by law.

H E L L O W E S LY N PA R K .

Ready to surround you with big Florida nature and a grand sense of adventure.

New homes for all ages and stages, priced from the $400s.

Models now open.

Start your adventure at our Basecamp information center.

6197 CYRILS DRIVE, ST. CLOUD, FL, 34771

sunbridgefl.com Sunbridge is an equal housing opportunity. Pricing is subject to change. © Tavistock Development Company 2022

PUBLISHER’S PICK: BUILDER  JORDAN HOMES

Brentwood Landing, which will consist of two-story Craftsman-style townhomes, is planned for 58 units with two floorplans from which to choose. Homes will range in size from 1,877 to 1,964 square feet, with prices starting in the $420s.

FOR JORDAN HOMES, BUILDING DREAMS IS A TRUE FAMILY AFFAIR

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father’s advice to a son can be invaluable. Just ask Giovanni Jordan, who was inspired by his dad to become a homebuilder. As a youngster he accompanied Larry Jordan, a general contractor, to job sites to help with small tasks.

“Something my dad always told me as a kid: You notice more details on a home when you’re pushing a broom on a job site than anything else,” recalls Jordan, who has homebuilding in his blood. Best of all, his dad is still around, serving as CEO of Jordon Homes. And so is his mom, Janette, who’s the company’s vice president of sales. The younger Jordon is COO and vice president of operations.

A homegrown guy, Jordan was raised in Oviedo. He studied civil engineering and environmental engineering before earning an MBA at the University of Central Florida.

To the family, the Oviedo/Chuluota area is home, sweet home — they all live in this rapidly growing sector of north

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H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

Seminole County. Says Jordan: “We want to improve and leave a positive impact for families and future generations here. Our goal is to improve our hometown as much as possible.”

The company currently has 500 homes planned in the next 12 months. In Oviedo, infrastructure is being finished on Brentwood Landing, right down the street from the Jordan’s office.

The community, which will consist of two-story Craftsman-style townhomes, is planned for 58 units with two floorplans from which to choose. Homes will range in size from 1,877 to 1,964 square feet, with prices starting in the $420s.

Groundbreaking was imminent at press time.

In Winter Park, Jordan Homes is building Lake Killarney (townhomes priced from the $600s, with lakefront units priced from the $800s) and Vilasa Homes (12 townhomes and two single-family homes priced from $1 million).

The two-story townhomes range in size from 2,319 to 2,660 square feet, while the pair of three-story single-family homes (with elevators, of course) boast 4,130 square feet of living area and are tucked among the townhome buildings on a cobblestone street that connects Canton and Swoope avenues.

Located just blocks from Park Avenue, many passersby have seen Vilasa Homes and have been intrigued by their unique modern design and long footprint visible from the Canton. So intrigued, in fact, that the community is essentially sold out.

Vilasa Homes in Winter Park has 12 townhomes and two single-family homes priced from $1 million. Lake Killarney townhomes (below), also in Winter Park, are priced from the $600s, with lakefront units priced from the $800s. Shown is the living room/dining room combination.

Projects south of Orlando include Soho at Lakeside (Kissimmee, townhomes priced from the $350s) and Magic Village Resort (near Walt Disney World, upscale townhomes priced from the $400s).

Two other communities, Arisha Enclave (Kissimmee, single-family homes priced from the mid-$300) and Summerville Resort (near Disney, townhomes priced from the $300s) are already sold out.

When it comes to the details, Jordan Homes customers can expect expert craftsmanship and upscale finishes. Homes in some communities come with such standard features as quartz countertops with waterfalls and premium appliances.

However, Jordan has never forgotten his dad’s early advice.

He and the company’s team personally walk through each and every home, taking the time to examine everything when it’s quiet and the crews have gone home.

“Even to this day, our entire team places priority on details and what we need to do to build a quality home for our clients,” says Jordan.

When a project is 100 percent complete, Jordan likes to visit the community to see residents grilling and washing cars, kids playing and families truly enjoying their homes: “It’s a sense of fulfillment that I don’t think anything else can provide.” n —Patricia Letakis

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PUBLISHER’S PICK: COMMUNITY  BELLALAGO

Verdant Bellalago in Kissimmee, hugging the shores of Lake Tohopekaliga, is blessed with an abundance of mature foliage — something that’s often absent in Central Florida’s newer communities. Club Vialago (below) is the community’s social epicenter, where residents enjoy classes ranging from Zumba and Pilates to water aerobics.

BELLALAGO WOWS BUYERS WITH A VERDANT SETTING ON BEAUTIFUL LAKE TOHO

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he Bellalago community off Pleasant Hill Road in Kissimmee has some of the biggest granddaddy oaks dripping with Spanish moss, some of the tallest magnolia trees with shiny deep green leaves and some of the most colorful aquatic plants blooming in the waters of Lake Tohopekaliga, which skirts its eastern edge.

The community, which began in November 2002, has expanded to encompass 1,330 acres. But through all the growth, its commitment to eco-preservation remains steadfast. And today, Bellalago is truly blessed with an abundance of mature foliage — something that’s often absent in Central Florida’s newer communities.

Adding to Bellalago’s appeal are lakes and ponds within the gated community, many with waterfront homes. Seventeen neighborhoods boast names like Bella Vista, Lakeview Estate, Eagle Isle, Stillwater Landing and others.

Earlier homes were built by Avatar Properties. Then, in October 2018, Taylor Morrison purchased the project. Stacie

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Cornell, regional marketing manager with Taylor Morrison, says that one of the community’s most important selling points is its vacation-style amenities.

There’s certainly no shortage of those. Bellalago has four resort-style pools: a zero-entry pool, a recreational pool (with a water slide!), a junior Olympic lap pool and a toddler pool.

Other sports-related amenities include tennis courts, beach volleyball, basketball courts and, of course, boating with access to one of Central Florida’s premiere lakes.

Club Vialago, the community’s social epicenter, is where residents enjoy classes from Zumba and Pilates to water aerobics. Besides its community room, gym, pools and a restaurant called Flip-Flops Bar and Grille, the club has a boat lift, a boardwalk/pier and a waterway to Lake Toho.

Residents, from families and singles to retirees and empty nesters, are finding that Bellalago checks all the boxes. More recently, people who work from home have discovered the community, along with out-of-area buyers.

“We are now seeing more prospects walking through the door from South Florida, Maryland and Virginia. Previously, we had huge traffic from the Northeast,” notes Cornell.

She adds that there are no single-family homesites remaining in Bellalago for to-be-built homes and, as of press time, there were fewer than 40 remaining quick move-in homes under construction.

Taylor Morrison builds six different floorplans — three one-story and three two-story homes — that range in size from 1,768 to 3,422 square feet. All homes are stylishly Mediterranean and have tile roofs.

The Java model at Bellalago is a flexible design that fits a variety of needs. Featuring a three-way split plan centered on an openconcept kitchen and great room, this modern home is designed for comfortable everyday living.

Next on the drawing board for Bellalago are townhomes.

Cornell says there’ll be about 110 units available, ranging in size from 1,373 to 1,555 square feet with one-car garages.

They’ll be conveniently located within walking distance from Club Vialago.

Outside the gated community, residents find everything they need from a Publix supermarket and a CVS Pharmacy to a brand-new Starbucks. Schools include Bellalago Charter Academy (K-8); Mater Brighton Lakes Academy (K-8); and Valencia College, Poinciana Campus. n —Patricia Letakis SUMMER 2022

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“The Seal of Homebuilding Excellence” Representing the area’s leading custom home builders, the Master Custom Builder Council has pledged to maintain the highest professional standards in the home building industry, dedicating themselves to using their craft to make Central Florida an even finer place to live.

Basso Homes Cahill Homes Charles Clayton Construction Dave Brewer, Inc. DeLorenzo Homes, Inc. Derrick Builders, Inc. Farina & Sons, Inc. Goehring & Morgan Construction

custombuilt.com | facebook.com/ MasterCustomBuilderCouncil

Hannigan Homes Hardwick General Contracting Issa Homes Jones Clayton Construction J. Richard Watson Construction LunDev Custom Homes McNally Construction Group Phil Kean Design Group Posada Custom Homes

PSG Construction Sorenson Construction Silliman Cityside Homes Stonebridge Homes The Einheit Company Waters Construction Builders Woodruff Construction and Development

P.O. Box 536732 Orlando, Florida 32853 | 407.875.2121

MANOR

T H E G U I D E T O C E N T R A L F L O R I D A’ S L U X U R Y B U I L D E R S A N D C O M M U N I T I E S

This custom home by Paul Waters Builders is in Isleworth, one of Central Florida’s most exclusive neighborhoods.

“I’m on the job every day. I’m my own superintendent,” says Paul Waters of Waters Custom Builders. “So there’s not a communication that doesn’t go through me.” That attention to detail is reflected in Waters’ gorgeous homes, like this one in Isleworth. Most of the family-owned company’s work is in upscale communities in southwest Orlando.

Islesworth Home

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CUSTOM BUILDER PROFILE

building trust, making friends Paul Waters says running a hands-on business is the secret to success in the custom-home market.

By PATRICIA LETAKIS

F

or Paul Waters, hands-on is the way to run a business. That’s certainly how he runs his company, Waters Custom Builders, which he started in 2017.

“I’m on the job every day. I’m my own superintendent,” he says. “So there’s not a communication that doesn’t go through me.”

Waters graduated from the M.E. Rinker School of Building Construction at the University of Florida in 2005 and went to work with J. Richard Watson Construction, one of the top custom homebuilders in Orlando.

It wasn’t until 13 years later that he got the itch to go out on his own. The opportunity came when he picked up a couple of large addition/renovation projects on custom homes. Then it was off to the races in a highly competitive business.

Over the past five years, Waters Custom Builders has tackled projects in Isleworth, Keene’s Pointe and the town of Windermere, all in southwest Orlando — for decades a custom-home hotspot.

Most of Waters’ home are in the vicinity of 4,500-plus square feet. But this year he landed a contract for a 13,700-squarefoot project — which he admits will skew the average somewhat higher.

Waters Custom Builders is a family company, run by Waters with one full-time employee, office manager Sarah Bowling.

His daughter Michelle helps with administration, while his wife Gladys handles payroll and seeks ways that the company can give back to the community.

What’s most rewarding about homebuilding, says Waters, is when a client is so thrilled with his work that he gets a referral — which happens frequently.

SUMMER 2022

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No two homes in Waters’ portfolio are exactly the same. “I don’t have a set of plans that we choose from,” he says. “We take the homeowner’s needs and design around them.” In this Windermere home, for example, the client was fond of dark, rich woods and — as is obvious from the simulator below — playing golf.

A true custom builder, Waters says no two homes in his portfolio are exactly the same. “I don’t have a set of plans that we choose from,” he says. “We take the homeowner’s needs and design around them.”

If you want a custom home but haven’t yet selected an architect, Waters says, he can offer guidance: “I meet with each client, get a feel for what they’re looking to do, then match them with an architect who I think can create that vision.”

If you have an architect, Waters adds, then get the builder in the loop as quickly as possible. “Sometimes an architect draws something that looks really pretty, but it’s not going to fit a buyer’s budget or be feasible to build structurally,” he says.

“We want to make sure the whole team is working together.”

The same, he adds, goes for an interior designer. When asked by buyers for recommendations, Waters notes that he tries to match personalities since communication — and a level of camaraderie — is so important to the interior design process.

One of Waters’s current projects is for a couple who’s downsizing. “We designed a home that would have extra-wide spaces for future wheelchair access,” he says. “Same with showers, which are roll-in. It’s not full ADA compliance — but it could become ADA compliant if it had to be.”

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As the Orlando area becomes increasingly built out, finding land on which to build a dream home has become more challenging. Although there are some vacant homesites in the communities where Waters now builds, he says teardowns are beginning to be predominate.

He cites a current project in Isleworth as an example. Although the client loved the neighborhood, the home was one of the first built in the exclusive community. It had termite damage, outdated materials and wasn’t as energy efficient as homes built today. It just made more sense to tear it down, he says.

Besides his hands-on work ethic, Waters is proud of his longterm relationship with his clients.

“I get phone calls from homeowners who I did projects for back in 2010,” he says. “They still call and ask questions about their homes. I answer them and I help them.”

He considers his clients to be friends when he finishes building their homes: “I know their families, they know mine. It’s a long-term relationship.”

Waters is a member of the Master Custom Builders Council, a highly selective organization whose membership criteria include financial stability and references from at least five former clients. All MCBC builders offer a limited 10-year structural warranty for their homes.

What’s his favorite thing about building? “I love seeing everything come together,” Waters says, whether that means building a new home or rebuilding an old one to fit a new owner’s needs.

Creative kids’ bedrooms and lavish master bathrooms for the grownups can be found in Waters’ homes. “I love seeing everything come together,” Waters says, whether that means building a new home or rebuilding an old one to fit a new owner’s needs.

But most rewarding, he adds, is when a client is so thrilled with Waters’ work that he gets a referral — which happens frequently. In fact, his company website is full of testimonials like this one: “What most impresses us about Paul, in addition to his knowledge of building practices, is his integrity. We have complete trust in his ability as a builder and in his word as a gentleman.” n

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THOUGHTFUL APPROACH Lake Nona’s new neighborhoods offer variety ­— which is key to the iconic project’s enduring appeal to buyers.

F

By Mike Candelaria

ile this housing story under “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Nearly 20 years after Lake Nona’s first home was purchased, buyers keep on coming, including Ryan and Edina Houston at one of four new single-family neighborhoods across Lake Nona’s 11,000 acres and 17 square miles in southeast Orlando.

Last November, on the day after Thanksgiving, the Houstons became the first buyers at Laurel Pointe, an intimate, gated community of 124 single-family homes with water and preserve views.

One- and two-story homes — ranging in price from the mid$900s to $2 million-plus — include three to seven bedrooms in 3,000 to more than 5,800 square feet.

Models by the builder, Toll Brothers, didn’t open until this August — but the Houstons didn’t hesitate sight (and site) unseen. In the past, they had regularly visited Orlando as Walt Disney World annual passholders — and decided to move permanently post-pandemic.

“We didn’t want to wait,” says Ryan, a Realtor. “We wanted more space and flexibility, and we liked the floorplan. It’s also brand new. We like building instead of going into something that was already established.” Wife Edina, also a Realtor, owns EDesigns and Co. LLC, a full-service interior design firm.

The couple and their two sons, ages 5 and 7, moved north from Delray Beach in mid-May and are renting a house in Lake Nona’s nearby Laureate Park neighborhood until construction of their new home is complete.

Laurel Pointe The Houstons’ chosen model is the two-story Barbera, with two of the five bedrooms earmarked for offices. Among the home’s highlights is a covered entry with double doors that open to an inviting foyer. There’s a spacious great room, a casual dining area and a covered lanai.

Toll Brothers is offering two sets of models, the Collage Collection and Mosaic Collection. (The Barbera model is part of the Collage Collection.)

Ryan and Edina Houston (above with their two children) are awaiting completion of their new home in Laurel Pointe. They chose the Barbera by Toll Brothers (facing page), which is part of the company’s Collage Collection. The Barbera, at 4,413 square feet, has a choice of elevations as well as five bedrooms and four to five bathrooms. The home is priced starting at $1,089,995.

Community amenities include miles of trails, parks, a robust public art collection and autonomous shuttle service, among other perks. In addition, the Houstons were attracted to what Ryan calls “New Nona” — an area that attracts families with young children in which both parents have busy careers.

Also, pointing to the neighborhood’s location at Narcoossee Road and Luminary Boulevard (which is under construction), he adds: “There are plenty of different opportunities to do different things.”

Ryan makes special mention of one of Lake Nona’s most distinctive amenities, Boxi Park. Located in Lake Nona Town Center, Boxi Park opened in late 2018 as a 30,000-square-foot, family- and dog-friendly outdoor venue that offers a mix of restaurants and bars, beach volleyball courts and a live entertainment stage.

The park is among the first of its kind on the East Coast.

The open-air entertainment destination is built using 12 repurposed shipping containers arranged in one- and two-story configurations.

SUMMER 2022

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Innovative Boxi Park, among the first of its kind on the East Coast, is an open-air entertainment destination built using repurposed shipping containers arranged in one- and two-story configurations. The park is a popular gathering spot for residents of all Lake Nona’s neighborhoods.

Visitors can explore an array of food and beverage options throughout the park, which also includes shaded seating, a playground and a fenced dog park. The outdoor stage hosts a variety of local performers with regular programming scheduled for weekdays and weekends.

Of course, Lake Nona Town Center, the hub of Lake Nona, features restaurants, boutiques, hotels, public art and event venues — 4 million square feet of premium shopping, dining and entertainment.

“As part of Lake Nona, Laurel Pointe residents will enjoy all of the varied amenities, attractions and activities that this innovative and creative area offers,” says Brock Fanning, Division President of Toll Brothers Central Florida.

Adds Fanning: “Home is more important than ever before.

People are realizing the importance of great design and how that can elevate their daily lives.”

Laureate Park Expansion While considered separate, Laurel Pointe is loosely part of an expansion of venerable Laureate Park, which opened in 2011.

Laureate Park, with its brightly colored bungalows, townhomes, cottages and multistory homes, is adding new homesites to be built by Craft Homes and Dream Finders Homes.

Craft Homes has single-family homes and townhomes, ranging in size from 1,650 to 3,413 square feet, with single-family homes priced from the mid-$500s and townhomes from the mid-$300s. There are three series of single-family homes — Artisan, Guild and Journey — and one townhome series, called Style.

Dream Finders Homes is offering single-family homes with prices starting at $625,990 and reaching $835,990. Homes range in size from 1,976 to 4,024 square feet.

In addition, new amenities are planned, such as a community garden, playground and trails connecting to the northern

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section of the older neighborhood.

The initial 227 homesites are now being brought to market, with a few hundred more to follow over the next few years, according to Rob Adams, who manages the for-sale residential neighborhood development and production builder programs for Lake Nona’s Tavistock Development Co. Adams was the lead executive in the development, launch and management of fabulously successful Laureate Park — which has recorded more than 2,600 home closings since opening.

Not surprisingly, Adams describes the Laureate Park Expansion as “a continuation of a close-knit neighborhood.” The same, in fact, can be said about all of Lake Nona — a continuation.

When Adams arrived at Tavistock, his two daughters were ages 1 and 4. Now, they’re in college. “It’s just a large piece of property, and it takes some time to develop it, even in a very high-growth market like Orlando — given the approach we take, which is a very thoughtful approach,” says Adams.

He adds: “We’re always active. With 11,000 acres, there’s always something happening. And we’re trying to get it right over that time. One of the bigger selling points of Lake Nona is we try to offer a wide variety of housing types.”

Isles of Lake Nona Such thinking is evident at Isles of Lake Nona, the third of the new communities, which opened in April 2020. The gated neighborhood contains single-family homes, townhomes and bungalows with open-concept floorplans, designer finishes and energy-efficient features (including natural gas) by Pulte Homes.

Homes range from two to seven bedrooms and two to 5.5 bathrooms, with prices starting at $471,990 for townhomes, $584,990 for bungalows and $629,990 for traditional single-family homes.

All totaled, there’ll be 508 new homes in Isles of Lake Nona

set amid a large, interconnected network of ponds much like Lake Nona’s established Village Walk neighborhood. At press time, there were nine model homes open for visitors.

Community amenities include a clubhouse, sport courts, a fire pit, a splash pad, a fitness center and a resort-style pool and cabana.

“Isles of Lake Nona has something for everyone,” says Blake Lapinsky, Pulte’s vice president of sales for Central Florida.

“And its location in Lake Nona makes it extremely convenient to access all that Orlando has to offer.”

Summerdale Park The fourth new neighborhood is Summerdale Park, consisting of homes on 50- and 60-foot homesites from Dream Finders Homes and Craft Homes. With abundant water frontage, a total of 208 homes are offered with prices starting in the mid-$500s.

For example, Dream Finders’ Biscayne model measures 2,689 square feet with four bedrooms and three bathrooms and is priced at $642,990, while its Ellington model, with five bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, is priced at $760,990.

The largest Craft Homes model is the 3,630-square foot Austin, which has four bedrooms and five bathrooms and is priced from $789,990.

Clearly, throughout the four new neighborhoods, there are choices. “One of the bigger selling points of Lake Nona is that we try to offer a wide variety of housing types,” says Adams of Tavistock.

Adams adds that buyers who love Laureate Park — which has smaller lots and garages in the back — aren’t necessarily prospects for Isles of Lake Nona, which is gated and features traditional architecture.

Among the models from which to chose at Isles of Lake Nona is the Whitestone by Pulte homes, which has four to five bedrooms and 2.5 to four bathrooms in 2,894 square feet. The home is priced starting at $704,990.

But they all like living in Lake Nona.

“People like living here for a lot of reasons,” continues Adams. “They like the housing choices. But they also really like the location — beyond the homes it’s the schools and what you can do here. There are dining destinations, you can walk in a park, there are events.”

Indeed, buyers remain attracted. Despite one change after another after another at Lake Nona, that fact has remained the same. n

In Summerdale Park, Craft Homes is offering the Austin, with four to five bedrooms and 4.5 to five bathrooms in 3,630 square feet. The home is priced starting at $760,990.

SUMMER 2022

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ake Nona Wave Hotel, the latest addition to the Tavistock Hotel Collection’s portfolio, opened its doors to the public in Central Florida’s fast-growing “smart city” in late 2021.

The Tavistock Group, an international private investment organization, is also developing Lake Nona — an east Orlando master-planned community known for its leading-edge home designs, high-tech bells and whistles, world-class sports facilities, burgeoning health sciences campus and an iconic golf and country club.

Now it’s also home to one of the coolest hotels in the region. Typical for Tavistock, its Hotel Collection is known for signature facilities with innovative architectural designs — and the Wave Hotel doesn’t disappoint.

The 17-story undulating exterior of curved glass — inspired by a wavelength of energy — is sophisticated and innovative. (The architectural design firm, Arquitectonica, is also behind the Lake Nona Resort, the eight-story performance and wellness resort situated along the southern shores of Lake Nona.)

On the inside, that sophistication and innovation is carried forward in the hotel’s 234 guest rooms, which feature tech-forward amenities such as inroom apps to control the environment and View Smart floor-to-ceiling windows.

At this writing, the hotel is the largest in the world equipped with smart-tech glass, which uses artificial intelligence to automatically adjust glass tint depending upon weather and lighting conditions.

But while many of the technological innovations are hidden, the hotel’s monumental art collection is right out in the open.

Beyond the guest rooms, the centerpiece of the hotel is the Living Room Lobby, where your art-centric journey begins. This area alone is decorated with some 300 pieces of curated art. (there are at least 500 pieces throughout the entire property. )

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H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

TAVISTOCK’S NEW HOTEL IN LAKE NONA OFFERS AN ART IMMERSION EXPERIENCE.

BY CONNIE SUE WHITE

Whether it’s during an after-work drink at the Living Room Bar or a delicious dinner at Bacán — one of the hotel’s two signature restaurants — locals are welcome to visit and take it all in. You can’t help but get a jolt of creative energy just by osmosis.

“Every corner here is meant to inspire and create new energy,” says Jessi Blakely, vice president of strategic communications for Tavistock. “While we’ve received national attention, it’s one of Orlando’s best kept secrets — but one that’s important to share with the community to enjoy.”

Not unlike the Alfond Inn in Winter Park, The Wave Hotel could be considered a sort of art museum in and of itself — and art is everywhere you look. Even elevator banks, for example, feature fully wrapped cabs.

But the words “eclectic” and “vibrant” don’t adequately describe the hotel’s unique ambiance.

Tavistock founder and chairman Joe Lewis, a British-based investor, told Amy Parry, the hotel’s art consultant, that he wanted guests to be surrounded by works that are “fun” and “make people happy.”

Mission accomplished. One of the first pieces you’ll see when entering the Living Room Lobby from the hotel’s main entrance is a large vintage-type couch turned up on one of its ends, as if it’s about to be hauled out by movers.

The oddly positioned sofa, juxtaposed against colorful modern furnishings by the likes of Eero Saarinen, Warren Platner and Marcel Wanders, is both amusing and eye catching.

The Wave Hotel’s 17-story undulating exterior of curved glass — inspired by a wavelength of energy — is itself a work of art. But art also infuses the indoor spaces and sculpture garden.

SUMMER 2022

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COURTESY THE TAVISTOCK GROUP

On the wall in the Living Room Bar (top) is a layered 20-foot-wide mural consisting of five panels with laser cuts through which colors of the rainbow can be seen. The Living Room Lobby (above) boasts 300-plus works of art, but perhaps the most instantly eyecatching object is a couch whimsically turned on its side. Just off the Living Room Lobby is one of the hotel’s two signature restaurants, Bacán (right). Upon entering, you’ll see a 10-by-20-foot vinyl mural overlooking the dining area. Even the elevator banks (facing page) highlight works of art with fully wrapped cabs.

The hotel’s robust technology facilitates a 360-degree immersion experience. A kinetic geometric sculpture and lighting

by Melissa Borrell hangs over the Stadium Seating Area, which also serves as the staircase to the mezzanine level.

Just off the Living Room Lobby is one of the hotel’s two signature restaurants, Bacán. Upon entering, it’s hard to miss the striking 10-by-20-foot vinyl mural overlooking the dining area by artist Amy Rader, who was recently selected to represent Tesla and Microsoft at Art Basel in Miami.

The lush piece, dubbed Pacha Mama by some of the staff, is a nod to Florida’s tropical environment and, if you look closely, also to The Glass House installation near Lake Nona’s Town Centre.

The hotel’s interior design firm, Blue Lantern Studios, tapped Parry to curate a package that features works of independent artists from around the world to complement their interior design.

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Parry pieced together the Living Room Lobby’s 300-plus works of art — specifically commissioning some, doggedly hunting down others — as well as other pieces found throughout the hotel over a period of 18 months.

The journey was a fruitful one, filled with whimsy, creativity and innovation.

Take, for example, the resin bear holding a balloon. The fanciful piece was the result of a brainstorming session between Parry and one of the designers about what they could find for a larger space that they had yet to fill.

Says Parry: “She suggested a gummy bear, but we needed something large and substantial, so we ended up having one designed and fabricated to meet our specs.”

Another large space they had to fill was on the wall next to the Living Room Bar. The work of Canadian contemporary artist Sarah Gee Miller, whom Parry discovered several years ago on Instagram, came to mind as an ideal solution.

SUMMER 2022

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COURTESY THE TAVISTOCK GROUP

The sculptures Faith (below), Empowerment, Time and Passion are part of the Baks Series by JEFRË, a Filipino-American artist whose temporary exhibition within the Sculpture Garden establishes figures as symbolic expressions of our culture that convey underlying emotional and spiritual meaning. Charging Bull (right), often referred to as the “Wall Street Bull,” is a 7,100-pound bronze sculpture by Arturo Di Modica. Originally a work of guerrilla art, the sculpture was created as a symbol of the “strength and power of the American people” following the 1987 stock market crash.

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TAKING IT OUTDOORS Travelers and locals visiting the Wave Hotel would be remiss if they didn’t take the time to head outdoors and explore the adjacent 50,000-square-foot Lake Nona Sculpture Garden.

The tropical enclave features 12 sculptures among some 300 palm trees representing six species, climbing vines, fragrant bushes and even night-blooming jasmine.

“We see this space as an extension of the hotel — an outdoor living room,” says Lake Nona Wave Hotel General Manager Suzie Yang. “It’s a truly one-of-a-kind location for weddings, special events and so much more.”

Eight of the sculptures are from the personal collection of Tavistock founder and chairman Joe Lewis, including one of the most recognized bronze sculptures in the world, Charging Bull by Arturo Di Modica.

Known by many as the “Wall Street Bull,” the iconic 7,100-pound bronze is one of five cast by the artist. In addition to this one and the one in Manhattan’s Financial District, the others can be found in Albany, New York; Nassau, Bahamas; and nearby Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windermere.

H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

The garden’s other distinguished sculptures include two Henry Moore bronze masterpieces, Mother and Child and Upright Motive. There’s also Leda and the Swan by Fernando Botero, Postmodern Man by Eric Goulder, Jeté II by Enzo Plazzotta and Cloister Conspiracy and The Don by Philip Jackson.

In addition, the garden features sculptures from rotating artists. Currently, there are four works by local artist JEFRË, whose Faith, Empowerment, Time and Passion were part of an Orlando Museum of Art exhibition. The artist’s iconic large-scale multimedia works can also be found throughout Lake Nona’s Towne Center.

“The caliber of artwork featured in the Lake Nona Sculpture Garden is unlike anything else in the Southeast,” says Orlando Museum of Art Director and CEO Aaron H. De Groft. “Like the Orlando Museum of Art, the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg or the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, which also has a large outdoor sculpture collection, Lake Nona is a must-see destination for art lovers.”

For more about the Sculpture Garden, visit lakenona.com/news/thing-place/lakenona-sculpture-garden.

COURTESY THE TAVISTOCK GROUP

“I’ve always loved her work,” notes Parry.

“And when we had an opportunity to commission a large-scale piece, I contacted her immediately.”

The resulting layered 20-foot-wide mural, comprised of five panels with laser cuts through which colors of the rainbow can be seen, is now one of Parry’s favorites.

Lewis, who owns one of the largest private art collections in the world, also had a hand in the selection process. He took a particular shine to an image of a bicycle with billiard balls in the basket, which Parry had found on Etsy.

“I remember thinking ‘I hope he doesn’t like this one because I don’t know if I can find it again,’” says Parry. “Well, he loved it!” And sure enough, Parry couldn’t find the piece again — but she had a similar one fabricated based upon the image.

By design and thoughtful consideration, art abounds at the Wave Hotel, beckoning in every nook and cranny. Among the hotel’s treasures are the pink dogwood tree next to the Living Room Bar, the “wave of birds” ceiling sculpture in the Ballroom Foyer and the 18 “artistic suites.”

As Parry says: “There are lots of twists and turns — you never know what you’ll encounter.” n

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OUR TOWNS THERE’S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA. LET’S TAKE A TOUR AND YOU CAN SEE FOR YOURSELF.

BY MICHAEL CANDELARIA

Orlando’s compact but lively downtown is highlighted by its iconic fountain on Lake Eola in the city’s signature park.

Central Florida features an array of options for living, working and playing.

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Orange County is home to a roster of the world’s most famous tourist attractions, including Walt Disney World . That’s Cinderella’s Castle, of course, which looms near the park’s entrance.

as well as Lake, Osceola and Seminole. The combined population: About 2.7 million.

As the region’s transportation network has improved, onceremote Brevard, Polk and Volusia counties are now also considered part of the generic amalgamation of Central Florida counties that is often referred to generally as “Orlando.”

So, if you’re ready to move, then take your pick. Chances are very good that what you’re looking for is in Central Florida — from thriving urban settings to small rural towns; from historic neighborhoods to new master-planned communities. Following is a county-by-county primer of regional highlights.

Orange County At a Glance Land Area: 1,004 square miles Population: 1,420,000 2010-2020 Population Growth: 25% 2025 Projected Population Growth: 1,573,001 Mean Travel Time to Work (Minutes): 28.2 Mean Household Income: $54,335 Education: Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 34.6%

summer 2022

STATISTICS: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, 2020

T

hroughout Central Florida, like the multitudes of new residents who arrive each week, the accolades are steady and significant. The newcomers? At last count, more than 1,000 people move each week to Central Florida.

In fact, the region has been adding at least that many people every week for the past 60 years, according to the Orlando Economic Partnership. Just imagine.

The accolades? As only a cursory sampling, they include being ranked the No. 4 Best Market in U.S. for Development Opportunities (CBRE, 2021) and No. 1 in the country for Job Growth (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015-2018). Plus, it’s Florida — with all the lifestyle attributes for which the Sunshine State is known.

There’s rich history, ample character and continual change.

And, of course, there are the internationally known theme parks and attractions, as well as the beaches and generally boundless scenic beauty.

There are thriving industries, too — including agriculture, advanced manufacturing, innovative technologies and corporate headquarters, as well as logistics and aerospace, life sciences and healthcare, aerospace and defense. That’s just for starters.

When most people refer to “Orlando,” they’re actually talking about the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which encompasses the counties Orange

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At more than 31,000 acres, Lake Apopka is the third-largest lake in Florida. Ongoing restoration efforts by the St. Johns River Water Management District and Orange and Lake counties have improved the water quality and helped return the lake to its longtime position as one of Central Florida’s most important natural resources.

Apopka Apopka’s roots, literally and figuratively, are in agriculture.

However, this booming city of more than 50,000 residents, located in the northwest corner of Orange County, now encompasses some of the region’s most exclusive housing addresses.

The region was settled in the 1840s and named after the Timucuan Indian word meaning “big potato,” or potato-eating place. Ironically, the farms that still surround the city grow just about everything but potatoes.

Noted as “The Indoor Foliage Capital of the World,” Apopka’s foliage industry is a multimillion-dollar business. Cut flowers, blooming plants, roses and bulbs are also grown in abundance.

Yet, agriculture is rapidly vanishing as dozens of muck farms, created when Lake Apopka was diked during World War II, were purchased by the state and shut down in an effort to restore the polluted body of water to a pristine state.

Apopka is home to more than 43 trails covering 394 miles. The Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive can be experienced via automobile or bicycle, and such natural attractions as Wekiwa Springs State Park and Kelly Park are popular destinations for recreation.

If you enjoy kayaking, paddleboarding or canoeing, then you won’t want to miss the 8.5-mile Wekiva River and Rock Springs Run. King’s Landing is an eight-mile scenic canoe trip, while Magnolia Park has boating, fishing, biking and hiking trails. The Apopka Birding Park is a 70-acre, passive birding park for upland birdwatching.

Apopkans are also proud of the Northwest Recreation Complex, which contains over 180 acres of practice and game fields as well as the 1,300 seat Apopka Amphitheater.

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More growth — in land area, at least — could come if the city annexes the area known as South Apopka, an 80-block area bounded on the north by U.S. Highway 441, east by Sheeler Road, south by Lake Jewell and west by Marden Road. About 8,000 people live in the unincorporated area, although its annexation is currently the subject of debate among city officials.

College Park Although its residents may be getting younger, much about this beloved Orlando neighborhood, which was platted in the 1920s, remains the same.

The 80-year-old commercial district along Edgewater Drive has always been home to an array of delightful mom-and-pop shops and eclectic eateries. The streets have always been quiet and the homes well-kept and charming.

But there’s plenty happening. Most notably, progress on the Packing District — so named because it was once the site of a citrus-packing facility owned by Dr. Phillip Phillips, the man who invented flash-pasteurized orange juice. The 202-acre tract is at the corner of Princeton Street and Orange Blossom Trail.

The $1 billion mixed-use project, developed by Dr. Phillips Charities, will encompass 1 million square feet of commercial and office space and 3,500 multifamily residential units as well as a YMCA Family Center, a Food Hall, a 105-acre regional park and a 40-acre urban farm along with a network of hiking and biking trails.

Gotha If you’re not a horticulturist, perhaps you’ve never heard of

Gotha (population about 2,000), a tiny rural enclave located inconspicuously north of upscale Windermere. But if plants are your passion, you may know Gotha as the one-time caladium capital of the world and home of Henry Nehrling, a horticulturist who specialized in growing tropical and subtropical plants.

Nehrling, who moved to Gotha in 1884, established one of the most renowned botanical gardens in the world, as well as an experimental agriculture station for the study of exotic strains of bamboo, amaryllis, bromeliad, orchid, Ficus and, of course, the caladium, which Nehrling was the first in Florida to grow and sell.

Gotha, which was founded by German settlers in the 1870s, boasts a tree-shaded, one-block commercial district that features the circa-1920 New Life at Zion Lutheran Church. And across the street is Yellow Dog Eats, a funky restaurant that occupies a circa-1879 structure that had previously been a private home and a general store. The unincorporated town borders Windermere and Winter Garden.

Nehrling Gardens’ annual Holiday Amaryllis Festival in December offers a great opportunity to visit Gotha. The free community event features amaryllis bulbs for sale as well as blooming amaryllis and other plants.

Maitland Since the 1960s, Maitland (population 17,000), has been a quintessential bedroom community. Some of the area’s first suburbs were built there to attract young families looking for large lawns and good schools.

In the late 1970s, a sprawling office park called Maitland

Center was built near the Interstate 4 interchange, also giving the city a distinctive business identity.

In recent decades, other large mixed-use projects were developed throughout the city, giving Maitland’s somewhat nebulous downtown district a more cohesive look. Also in Maitland is Enzian Theater, the region’s only art-house cinema.

The arts scene is further strengthened by the Maitland Art Center, founded in 1937 by sculptor André Smith. The center, originally intended to be a compound where artists could live and work, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and features an open-air chapel that has become a popular place for weddings.

Under the umbrella of the Art and History Museums-Maitland is also the Victorian-era Waterhouse Residence and the small but intriguing Maitland History Museum. And every year since 1976, the Maitland Rotary Art Festival has been held on the shores of Lake Lily and features works by around 135 artists and artisans.

And the city has a charming public library, founded in 1896 and housed in a building that dates to 1907, that’s not part of the Orange County Library System. Additions to the building were made in 1959, 1972, and 1989. However, the city has been discussing ways to replace the building entirely. Stay tuned.

Maitland has plenty of other history. It was established in 1838 as Fort Maitland, named in honor of Captain William S. Maitland, a hero of the Second Seminole War. Adjacent to Maitland is Eatonville (population about 2,100), founded in 1887. It’s thought to be the oldest city in the country incorporated by African Americans. Folklorist Zora Neale Hurston lived in Eatonville for a time and wrote about the com-

The Central Florida arts scene is strengthened by the Art Center at Maitland, founded in 1937 by sculptor André Smith. The center, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, features an open-air chapel that has be­come a popular place for weddings.

summer 2022

27

Southern elegance describes the historic Withers-Maguire House in Ocoee, a fast-growing town with vestiges of its history. Built in 1888, the house is of a Gothic Stick style with beautiful heart-pine floors throughout the interior. The house was purchased in 1979 by the city of Ocoee and meticulously restored to its current beauty and charm.

munity in books such as Their Eyes Were Watching God. The town is in talks with a developer to revitalize the 88acre site at the corner of East Kennedy Boulevard and Wymore Road, once the site of Hungerford Prep. The site has been vacant since 2009 and under contract multiple times.

But now the Falcone Group is looking to build a mixed-use complex with housing, office space and public amenities, and has held forums for community members to offer input about what they’d like to see on the site.

Oakland More than 100 years ago, Oakland was the industrial and social hub of Orange County. Today, the picturesque town, which lies two miles west of Winter Garden on the southern shores of Lake Apopka, is home to approximately 3,500 people.

Elected officials still refer to Oakland as a town, although it was incorporated as a city in 1959. The city designation does seem a bit incongruous for this rural enclave, where voters have rejected proposals to pave the narrow clay streets for fear that more people might want to drive on them.

The city — that is, the town — is home to the Healthy West Orange Arts and Heritage Center, whose mission is to preserve Oakland’s past, present and future. The center supports the mission of Healthy West Orange, a grassroots movement to inspire west Orange County to become the healthiest community in the nation.

Programming is focused on Oakland’s heritage, culture and arts as well as health/wellness initiatives such as health screenings, health education, nutrition classes, and fitness and wellness activities. Oakland’s Jazz Night gatherings will be

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hosted at the center.

Oakland is also home to the 93-acre Oakland Nature Preserve, where wildlife abounds and paths and boardwalks line the shores of Lake Apopka.

Ocoee Ocoee remained an isolated citrus town clustered around Starke Lake until the 1980s. Now, with roughly 48,000 residents, it’s neck-and-neck with Winter Garden for the third most populous city in Orange County, behind Orlando and Apopka.

The transformation began three decades ago, when devastating freezes destroyed thousands of acres of citrus trees and opened west Orange and south Lake counties for development. Today, Ocoee boasts a one-million-square-foot regional mall and at least three-dozen subdivisions with homes in all price ranges.

Ocoee’s beginnings were inauspicious. In the mid-1850s a physician named J.D. Starke led a group of enslaved people into the area and established a camp along the western shores of the lake that now bears his name.

Captain Bluford Sims, who hailed from Ocoee, Tennessee, arrived in 1861 and bought 50 acres from Starke. He then platted what would become downtown Ocoee.

Through the years, Ocoee developed into a thriving citrusproducing center. Today, however, housing is the city’s hottest commodity. Florida’s Turnpike, State Road 408 (formerly known as the East-West Expressway) and State Road 429 (the Western Beltway) all pass through the city, meaning once-remote downtown Orlando is a much shorter commute.

In 2016, Ocoee adopted its Downtown Ocoee Master Plan

that called for more than a $44 million capital projects program to enhance public spaces and key infrastructure.

Projects included improved or expanded public spaces along the western shore of Starke Lake and expansion of the Lakeshore Center, an event destination. Bill Breeze Park and the historic Withers-Maguire House grounds have been upgraded with new landscaping and outdoor event spaces.

At the same time, Ocoee retains vestiges of days gone by.

For example, there’s the circa-1890 Ocoee Christian Church, with its gothic architecture and Belgian-made stained-glass windows, and a quaint downtown district boasting several vintage buildings.

Downtown Orlando Downtown continues to bustle. During the building frenzy of the early 2000s, scarcely a week passed without a new major condominium development being announced for the once-sleepy district. Then, with the economic downturn of 2007, growth slowed before roaring back.

In recent years, with construction of an arena (Amway Center), a performing-arts center (Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts) and a soccer stadium (Exploria Stadium) — plus the renovation of a football stadium (Camping World) — downtown is booming with residential and commercial activity, while the expansion of Interstate 4 (the I-4 Ultimate Project) promises even more growth.

Orlando proper, somewhat surprisingly, is not a particularly

large city with 300,700 residents. Orlando proper was initially named “Jernigan” for Aaron Jernigan, an early settler.

But it was renamed in 1857, probably — but not certainly — to honor Orlando Reeves, an Army sentry killed during the Seminole Wars. (Some historians believe that a local judge named the city for a character in Shakespeare’s As You Like It.) In any case, The Town of Orlando was incorporated in 1875 with 85 inhabitants, 22 of whom were qualified voters.

The period from 1875 to 1895 is remembered as Orlando’s Golden Era, when it became the hub of Florida’s citrus industry. The period ended with the Great Freeze of 1894-95, which forced many owners to give up their independent citrus groves.

Citrus holdings were then consolidated in the hands of a few citrus barons, who shifted operations south, primarily around Lake Wales in Polk County. The freeze caused many Floridians, including many Orlandoans, to move elsewhere, mostly to the North, California or the Caribbean.

Orlando became a popular resort during the years between the Spanish-American War and World War I. In the 1920s, the city — and most the rest of the state — grew rapidly during the Florida Land Boom, causing land prices to soar.

The boom ended when several hurricanes struck Florida in the late 1920s and the Great Depression plunged the nation into a prolonged financial crisis. By 1940, Orlando was the least-populated city in the South.

A comeback began during World War II, when Army personnel were stationed at the Orlando Army Air Base and nearby

In 2021, downtown Orlando saw completion of Dr. Phillips Center for the Per­forming Arts, a worldclass performing-arts campus that features three distinct venues.

Down­town is also booming with residential and commercial activity, while the expansion of Interstate 4 (the I-4 Ultimate Project) promises even more growth.

summer 2022

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Southeast Orlando’s Lake Nona is among the top-selling master-planned commu­nities in the U.S. with more than 17,000 residents. Measuring 17 square miles, the 11,000-acre community is about three-fourths the size of Manhattan.

Pinecastle Army Air Field. Some of these service members stayed in Orlando to settle and raise families.

Then, in 1956, the aerospace and defense company Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) established a plant in the city and employed thousands.

But the foundation for the second great boom came in 1965, when Walt Disney announced plans to build Walt Disney World. The vacation resort opened in October 1971, ushering in an explosive population and economic growth for the entire region.

The city is dotted with historic neighborhoods and new infill development and is known for its signature body of water, Lake Eola, with its circa-1950s molded plastic fountain and swan boats.

Southeast Orlando At roughly 100 square miles, the region generally referred to as southeast Orlando encompasses the University of Central Florida, Orlando International Airport and an array of masterplanned communities, as well as stretches of pastureland, piney forests and wetlands abutting the Econlockhatchee River.

The remaining rural areas are rapidly vanishing as the pace of growth accelerates, particularly in the form of those large master-planned communities that contain a mixture of singlefamily and multifamily homes clustered around retail and commercial development.

Most notable is sprawling Lake Nona, consisting of residential, commercial, education and healthcare development, making it a prototypical modern metropolis.

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Lake Nona is among the top-selling master-planned communities in the U.S. with more than 22,000 residents. Measuring 17 square miles, the 11,000-acre community is one-fourth the size of Washington, D.C., and three-fourths the size of Manhattan.

One of the fastest-growing master-planned communities in the U.S., Lake Nona — which is being developed by Tavistock Development Company in south Orlando — is recognized for its thoughtfully designed neighborhoods, top-rated education facilities, leading-edge business and research clusters, and diverse retail and entertainment centers.

Bisected by State Road 417, Lake Nona sits southeast of the Orlando International Airport and just north of Osceola County. While thousands of residents call Lake Nona home, there also are many nonresidential projects in the community — and many more on the way.

When Lake Nona began to emerge about 15 years ago, the idea of investing in a community 25 minutes from downtown Orlando may have seemed like a gamble. But the once-remote area has since filled with more new residents and businesses of every variety.

At the intersection of Lake Nona Boulevard and Tavistock Lakes Boulevard, the Lake Nona Town Center encompasses hotels, offices, restaurants and apartment buildings. Plans call for the open-air, urban district to eventually contain 6 million square feet of entertainment, shopping and dining space.

Boxi Park Lake Nona is in the Town Center just south of State Road 417 on Lake Nona Boulevard. It offers a mix of restaurants and bars, beach volleyball courts and a live entertain-

ment venue to create an outdoor entertainment destination built using 14 repurposed shipping containers arranged in one- and two-story configurations.

Among the first of its kind on the East Coast, the 30,000square-foot park is family- and dog-friendly. Customers can find food and beverage options showcasing different cuisines, along with two full-service bars serving a selection of cocktails.

A beer garden features its own craft beer line.

Visitors have several hotel choices with Marriott: Courtyard for short-term guests and Residence Inn for long-term stays.

The Town Center buildings are adjacent and share a lobby.

Each hotel offers more than 100 rooms and fitness centers.

The all-new Lake Nona Wave Hotel, the Town Center’s crown jewel, opened in 2021. With its curvilinear glass edges jutting 17 stories skyward, the hotel has 234 guest rooms and brings the community new entertainment options with two restaurants, a lounge and a pool that may be visited by locals.

And coming soon is a 205-room Aloft Hotel, in which every room will include Aloft’s ultra-comfortable beds in an artful, clutter-free loft layout. There’ll also be a 10,000 square-foot conference center and full-service restaurant.

Lake Nona’s health and life sciences cluster, also known as Medical City, is home to top medical and research facilities, including the University of Central Florida (UCF) Health Sciences Campus and the UCF Lake Nona Cancer Center as well as Nemours Children’s Hospital, the University of Florida Research & Academic Center and the Orlando Veterans Affairs

Medical Center.

Together they provide a unique collection of research, education and medical care options — all state-of-the-art. So let’s take a deeper look at what, exactly, Medical City has to offer.

The UCF Health Sciences campus includes several facilities. Established in 2006, the UCF College of Medicine is one of the first U.S. medical schools in decades to be built from the ground up.

Included is a 170,000-square-foot medical education facility, which features the latest in lab and classroom technology, as well as the 198,000-square-foot Burnett Biomedical Sciences building.

The college is unique nationally because of the large undergraduate and graduate programs in biomedicine offered through the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. The Burnett School boasts almost 3,000 undergraduates — making biomedical sciences the third most popular major at UCF. In addition, the 204,709-square-foot UCF Lake Nona Hospital — a partnership hospital between HCA Healthcare’s North Florida Division and UCF Academic Health — opened in March 2021 adjacent to the medical school.

The 64-bed teaching hospital provides healing for patients throughout Central Florida and beyond. It also educates healthcare providers of the future and supports the work of brilliant medical researchers that will lead to lifesaving care.

Near the hospital is the 175,000-square-foot UCF Lake Nona Cancer Center, which houses cancer researchers, clinical trials and treatment for patients. And there are other key components

Lake Nona’s health and life sciences cluster, also known as Medical City, is home to top medical and research facilities, in­cluding the University of Central Florida Health Sciences Cam­pus. Nearby are the Lake Nona Cancer Center, the Nemours Children’s Hospital, the University of Florida Research & Academic Center and the Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

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The largest tennis facility in the country, the USTA National Campus features 100 courts and innovative developmental programs that make it a training destination for professional, collegiate and amateur players. Home to thousands of training players and teams and to hundreds of tournaments each year, the 64acre campus is open to the public and serves all levels of play for all ages. The campus has hosted 675,000 visitors and attendees since opening in 2017.

of Medical City.

The 1.2 million-square-foot Orlando VA Medical Center serves the region’s 200,000 veterans by providing acute care, complex specialty care, advanced diagnostic services, and a large multispecialty outpatient clinic as well as administrative and support services.

The VA facility is also home to the SimLEARN National Simulation Center, which is dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare services for veterans through the application of simulation-based learning strategies to clinical workforce development.

The University of Florida Research and Academic Center at Lake Nona is a 110,000-square-foot facility where basic, clinical and translational research in drug discovery and development takes place. UF’s center also houses a nationally ranked Doctorate in Pharmacy program.

The 92,000-square-foot GuideWell Innovation Center, located near the UF facility, is a medical innovation hub for startups and healthcare entrepreneurs. The three-story building includes co-working space for startups on the first floor and houses clinical and research companies on the upper floors.

Designed to promote collaboration and acceleration of groundbreaking ideas, the center provides the resources and collaborative environment innovators need to develop new solutions — and the connections to take concepts to market.

The 30,000-square-foot, first-floor collaboration space offers leaders from around the globe access to the best thinking in health innovation. Also in the building: exhibit space for new medical technology, a presentation venue, a video production studio, a nutrition lab and meeting space.

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The Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute is a 35,000-square-foot global training center for the company’s employees. Also available through the institute are services to help everyone from athletes to executives be more productive and perform at their personal best in high-stress situations.

The institute’s campus includes the Corporate Athlete Course, a conference center, comprehensive testing and diagnostic facilities, a state-of-the-art fitness center and a worldclass tennis center.

The 630,000-square-foot Nemours Children’s Hospital is part of a state-of-the-art health campus that also includes Nemours Children’s Clinic, an ambulatory diagnostic center and extensive research and education facilities.

Healing gardens, nature trails, pet therapy areas and water features help create a peaceful environment that fosters both mental and physical healing.

Big Four professional services firm KPMG selected Lake Nona for its national training center from a competitive field of 50 prospective cities nationwide.

The high-tech campus opened in early 2020 and focuses on enhancing the skills and services of KPMG professionals through immersive training in cutting-edge classroom and field environments. About 50,000 employees worldwide will train each year in various accounting disciplines.

Opened last summer, the Lake Nona Performance Club is 130,000 square feet — big enough to hold several grocery stores. The concept is a 360-degree approach to health for everyone from infants to seniors, with specialized equipment for rehabbing injured athletes.

Aquatics include a leisure pool, lap pool and whirlpool. The

While much of “Old Windermere” has looked the same for generations, like the historic Town Hall, the area around the quaint, lake-dotted community is now dotted with upscale custom-home neighborhoods.

studio space for yoga, barre and Pilates is larger than most houses.

The gymnasium features basketball and volleyball courts.

And Lake Nona has partnered with Chopra Global, a leading whole-health company founded by wellness guru and bestselling author Deepak Chopra, to create the Chopra Mind-Body Zone and Spa. On Adventure Lake adjacent to the City of Orlando’s Heroes Community Park, the Nona Adventure Park is a watersports park that features a two-track Rixen Cable System for waterskiers and wakeboarders.

It also offers an aqua park with a series of floating pathways, climbing obstacles, slides and trampolines. There’s even a summer camp, which pretty much always sells out. In addition, the park has a pro shop as well as a 60-foot climbing tower with a ropes course and climbing walls.

The Wi-Fi-enabled main entrance houses an upscale café with food and beverages, and a dry seating area for spectators.

The largest tennis facility in the country, the USTA National Campus features nearly 100 courts and innovative developmental programs that make it a training destination for professional, collegiate and amateur players.

Home to thousands of training players and teams and to hundreds of tournaments each year, the 64-acre campus is open to the public and serves all levels of play for all ages. The campus has hosted more than 675,000 visitors and attendees since opening in 2017.

Current and former professionals who have visited, trained, coached and played at the facility include James Blake, CiCi Bellis, the Bryan Brothers, Jim Courier, Chris Evert, Ivan Lendl,

Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Madison Keys, Billie Jean King, Jack Sock, Frances Tiafoe and David Young.

The facility was selected as the host site of the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships in 2019 and 2021, as well as the NCAA Division III Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships in 2022.

XL Soccer World opened a new 50,000-square-foot indoor athletic complex off Narcoossee Road, near Valencia College’s Lake Nona campus in 2020. The facility features two, six-versus-six 4G boarded turf fields and two multisurface fields.

The camps feature adult leagues, a mini sports academy for youngsters (soccer, basketball, baseball and flag football).

In addition, there are Youth Soccer programs and even an XL National Team consisting of selected players who’ll have an opportunity to compete in Europe. The facility is working to expand with two outdoor fields by the end of 2022.

And the hits just keep on coming. Enhancing Lake Nona’s high-tech luster is SIMCOM Aviation Training, which has announced plans to build a new global headquarters and training facility in the Town Center. The five-acre site will include 12 full-flight simulator bays and train an estimated 10,000 pilots per year.

Windermere Nestled among the spring-fed Butler Chain of Lakes, the cozy town of Windermere — at least, the unincorporated area surrounding the tiny town that has the advantage of a Windermere mailing address — has emerged as one of the hottest housing markets in Florida and the Southeast.

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Winter Garden, in West Orange County, is considered one of the region’s coolest small cities, with a funky downtown historic district filled with mom-and-pop eateries and intriguing boutiques. The West Orange Trail runs through the center of town.

Lake Bessie on the southeast, Windermere is a verdant peninsula where many of the homes are on the shoreline.

Not coincidentally, Windermere proper (population about 3,500) and the area surrounding it encompasses some of Central Florida’s most upscale new communities, home to businesspeople, entrepreneurs and athletes.

The lakes, in fact, attracted one of Windermere’s first investors, Joseph Hill Scott. Scott’s son, Stanley, homesteaded the property and supposedly named it after Lake Windermere in England.

Little changed until 1910, when a pair of Ohio investors named D.H. Johnson and J. Calvin Palmer bought all the land they could piece together and formed the Windermere Improvement Company for the purpose of developing it.

Some old homes and buildings have been preserved and add to the charm of this small town — yes, it’s a town, not a city — nestled among the ancient oaks on an isthmus between lakes Down and Butler.

In the early days of the construction of Walt Disney World, the 1960s and 1970s, many Disney executives lived in Windermere, including Don Edgren, Bob Allen and Admiral Joe Fowler.

Small-town touches abound. There’s a weekly Farmers’ Market every Friday along Town Square Park as well as a costume paraded and hayride for Halloween and a PetFest that features food trucks, a police K-9 demonstration, live music, and tons of fun for residents and their furry friends.

Although the main drag is paved, most of the residential streets in Windermere proper aren’t — which is just the way the residents like it. But, of course, that’s “Old Windermere.”

The ritzy gated communities, such as Isleworth, known for

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its profusion of professional athletes, are in unincorporated Orange County.

Winter Garden It was 1857 when W.C. Roper was riding through the backwoods of west Orange County on horseback, seeking a place to build a home for his family waiting back in Georgia.

Roper bought 600 acres along the shore, between presentday Winter Garden and Oakland, and returned a year later with his wife and 10 children.

The ambitious settler operated a sawmill, a gristmill, a sugar mill and a cotton gin. Later, he built a tannery for making shoes and served as Orange County’s superintendent of schools from 1873 to 1877.

Fast-forward to the 1920s, when Roper’s son Frank planted the area’s first orange trees, marking the humble beginnings of an industry that would sustain and define Winter Garden, which had been incorporated in 1903, for the next six decades.

Fast-forward again to the 1980s, when devastating freezes destroyed thousands of acres of citrus. Developers began buying up decimated groves for new homes, creating new subdivisions seemingly overnight. Then came a brilliant project called Rails to Trails, through which abandoned rail beds across the country were converted into hiking and biking trails.

The popular West Orange Trail, 22 miles long, passes directly through Winter Garden, thus converting the all-but-forgotten city into an oasis for thousands of ready-to-spend strollers.

And most are charmed by what they see. As a result, Winter Garden is blossoming anew — this time as a scenic place to live in literally dozens of new communities.

Today the rustic-chic city of 48,000 is a destination for visi-

tors, residents and businesses. Incorporated in 1908, Winter Garden sits on the southern shore of Lake Apopka and is 20 minutes west of Orlando.

Winter Garden’s picturesque downtown district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It covers about 100 acres in the general area of Woodland, Tremaine, Henderson and Lakeview streets.

West Plant Street, which runs east and west through the district, is home to several dining and shopping choices. In addition, the popular Winter Garden Farmers Market sets up downtown each Saturday. It has been recognized as one of the country’s best farmers’ markets by the American Farmland Trust.

Plant Street Market, housing more than 20 merchants including the popular Crooked Can microbrewery, opened in 2014 on the site of a demolished apartment complex. The market houses farm-to-table restaurants, a bakery, a butcher, a chocolatier, a wine bar and various sellers of artisanal food items.

The $2 million project extended downtown’s footprint beyond City Hall and further solidified Winter Garden’s reputation as a foodie’s dream and as a reminder of the city’s long history with agriculture. In addition, the New York Beer Project, a New York-based brewery, opened a 24,000-square-foot facility earlier this year.

The project, located on the corner of Seidel Road and Seton Creek Boulevard, features a gastropub, an indoor beer garden, a tap room, a sidewalk bistro and three Big Apple-themed event spaces.

An icon of downtown Winter Garden is the restored Garden

Theatre, a circa-1930s movie house. Now a performing-arts center, it hosts live theater, dance and musical programs as well as the annual Starlight Film Festival.

In addition, the city partnered with the Winter Garden Arts Association to convert the old Boyd Street Fire Station into a hub for visual art that now houses a gallery and a teaching facility. It’s the first step toward creation of an Art and Design District, which will offer artists both living space and studio space.

The city’s Heritage Foundation operates two museums: The Winter Garden Heritage Museum, located in the old Atlantic Coast Line Depot, and the Central Florida Railroad Museum, located in the old Tavares & Gulf Railroad Depot. Both museums offer free admission.

Residents and visitors looking for a special night out can visit the critically acclaimed Chef’s Table at the Edgewater Hotel on Plant Street. Diners and shoppers have even more choices in the Winter Garden Village, located off Daniels Road and just northwest of State Road 429.

Winter Garden is still finalizing its ambitious East Winter Garden Plan, which concentrates on revitalization of 10th and Center streets, the intersection of Ninth Street and Story Road, and the corner of Ninth and Plant streets.

The plan involves street improvements; additional street, bike and pedestrian connections; new buildings; additional parking locations; and upgraded open spaces.

West Orange County While Orlando’s sunrise side burgeons with fast-growing

Plant Street Market, housing more than 20 merchants including the popular Crooked Can microbrewery, opened in 2014 on the site of a demolished apartment complex.

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Hamlin, in the heart of Horizon West, includes a Town Center with more than 2 million square feet of mixed-use commercial space and up to 4,870 residential units at buildout. The Town Center is already ringed with residential communities.

Lake Nona and seam-busting UCF, the region’s sunset side has emerged as just as much of a hot spot.

Horizon West is home to five unique villages and a town center situated in the center of 28,000 acres — that’s just under 32 square miles, which is nearly the size of neighboring Walt Disney World.

The village-centric design means that homes will be nearby schools, a village center and public parks, where wide pathways connect everything. Green spaces and nature preserves are found along pathways and throughout each village. Splitrail fences and orange-crate relief art distinguish community thoroughfares.

That wasn’t the case decades ago, when Horizon West was home mostly to thousands of acres of orange groves. Repeated freezes in the late 1980s set into motion a plan by landowners to develop the vast acreage, where citrus farming was no longer viable.

The landowners, mostly growers, presented an intelligent and comprehensive plan to Orange County that was unprecedented in its sheer scope. Horizon West began to take form when the plan was adopted in 1995.

Six villages were proposed, which are now known as Lakeside, Bridgewater, Town Center, the Seidel area (Village F), Hickory Nut (Village H) and Ovation (Village I).

Later came Hamlin, which included a Town Center with more than 2 million square feet of mixed-use commercial space and up to 4,870 residential units at buildout. The Town Center is already ringed with residential communities.

Development of a 3,624-acre central area, which spans all four quadrants of the State Road 429 exchange, will take up to a decade to fully complete and will act as a destination for the entire region with components that encompass dining, enter-

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tainment, offices, hotels, medical, wellness, shopping, housing and education.

Horizon West’s villages have been approved for 40,282 residential units, making the projected population at buildout 100,705. Because of faster than anticipated growth, it’s already more than halfway complete, according to county officials, and is currently home to about 25,000 people. Schools are also starting to keep pace with growth. An ambitious building program backed largely by a half-penny sales tax has helped ease the overcrowding. And Horizon West on its own has driven a major expansion of public schools.

West Orange County also includes the 4.5-square-mile Dr. Phillips area (you’ll remember Dr. Phillip Phillips from earlier in this story). The former grove land now encompasses such neighborhoods as Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Country Club, Orange Tree and Sand Lake Hills as well as the Butler Chain of Lakes.

The Dr. Phillips area also boasts an array of retail and dining destinations, including Central Florida’s renowned “Restaurant Row” and The Mall at Millenia.

Winter Park Once a haven for artists, writers and academicians, Winter Park was promoted in the late 1800s as a refuge for “the cultured and wealthy.” Those early boosters would almost certainly be pleased to see how it all turned out.

Today, the city is home to 70-plus parks and nearly as many oak trees (20,000) as residents (approximately 31,000). Its eight square miles encompass lovely old homes, an upscale shopping district, a prestigious liberal arts college, a plethora of galleries and museums, and street signs that admonish motorists to “drive with extraordinary care.”

The heart of Winter Park is Park Avenue, stretching 10 blocks and boasting more than 100 shops, from upscale national retailers to one-of-a-kind boutiques. In addition, the downtown shopping district has spread west on New England Avenue as posh apartments and retail stores have sprung up.

On the north end of Park Avenue is the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, showcasing the world’s largest collection of Tiffany glass. Several blocks farther west is Winter Park Village, a retail and entertainment complex on U.S. Highway 17-92.

Year-round the city is alive with festivals and special events, highlighted by the renowned Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival, held in the spring and attracting artists from around the country, and the Autumn Art Festival, which is limited to Florida artists.

On the shores of Lake Virginia is beautiful Rollins College, one of the highest rated liberal arts colleges in the country. And the city is also home to Full Sail University, one of the world’s top schools for entertainment technology.

Winter Park is known for its peacocks, generations of which have roamed its neighborhoods. They’re all descendants of the peacocks brought to their property between lakes Virginia, Berry and Mizell by Hugh and Jeannette McKean in 1945.

Hugh McKean was a president of Rollins and Jeannette was an artist and the granddaughter of early Winter Park developer Charles Hosmer Morse, for whom the previously mentioned museum is named.

Winter Park is also well known for its Scenic Boat Tour, which traverses the Winter Park Chain of Lakes through verdant, manmade canals. Breathtaking views of opulent private homes and exquisite estates sprawling along the shores are

also a key feature of the hour-long tour, which has been in operation since 1938.

And golfers can enjoy a historic 9-hole course at the northern edge of Park Avenue as well as an 18-hole layout in the Winter Park Pines neighborhood, both owned and operated by the city.

Recent big projects in Winter Park have included a new Library & Events Center designed by celebrity architect David Adjaye. Soon to come, on downtown property dubbed “Innovation Triangle” by Rollins College, is a new facility for the Rollins Museum of Art and the Crummer Graduate School of Business.

The other edge of the triangle is the Rollins-owned Alfond Inn. It was recently expanded and houses the Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, which is associated with the Rollins Museum of Art. The boutique hotel was named one of the 15 Best Resorts in Florida by the readers of Travel + Leisure in the magazine’s 2022 World’s Best Awards.

leading employers Walt Disney World Resort Universal Orlando Resort AdventHealth Orlando Health Publix Supermarkets Greater Orlando Aviation Authority University of Central Florida Lockheed Martin Corp.

Resource Employment Solutions Darden Restaurants Inc.

Park Avenue is the dining and retail hub of Winter Park, and one of the most eclectic commercial districts in all of Florida. It’s anchored by Central Park, a carefully manicured, 11-acre green space dotted with monuments to the city’s history.

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If all you know about Seminole County is what you see while driving along U.S. Highway 17-92, then you need to get off the beaten track and check out the county’s natural beauty, such as Lake Triplett in Casselberry. Seminole County has 148 lakes, 29 parks, 89 miles of trails and 6,000 acres of preserved wilderness areas.

seminole County STATISTICS: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, 2020

At a Glance Land Area: 298 square miles Population: 471,000 2010-2020 Population Growth: 11% 2025 Projected Population Growth: 492,260 Mean Travel Time to Work (Minutes): 27.5.

Mean Household Income: $66,768 Education: Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 39.6%

Altamonte Springs Although Altamonte Springs was incorporated in 1920, its population totaled only 5,000 as recently as 1970. But that was before developers turned this erstwhile whistle-stop into a thriving suburb.

Today, Altamonte Springs, population 45,300, is known both for the Altamonte Mall, built in 1974 as the area’s first regional mall, and the newer Uptown Altamonte, as well as for the presence of virtually every franchised eatery in the world.

Uptown Altamonte, which spans more than 25 acres on the shores of a 40-acre manmade lake, now has established itself as the pulse of Altamonte Springs and serves as an economic and aesthetic focal point.

Many of the city’s subdivisions can be found along Palm Springs Drive, Maitland Avenue and Montgomery Road, not far from the mall. Some of the older developments are nestled around hidden lakes that seem far removed from the hustle and bustle.

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Multifamily housing also is plentiful, with approximately three-dozen apartment developments located within the city limits, primarily along Semoran Boulevard, also known as State Road 436. Apartment living, plus the convenience of shopping and entertainment venues, has made Altamonte Springs popular among young adults.

Casselberry Founded by World War I veteran Hibbard Casselberry, who in 1926 bought 3,000 acres to grow ferns, Casselberry emerged as a suburban residential community after World War II. By the time it was incorporated in 1965, Casselberry encompassed numerous family-oriented subdivisions and a budding business district near the intersection of State Road 436 and U.S. Highway 17-92.

In the decades that followed, the city continued to grow, and its population today stands at more than 30,000 people.

As such, Casselberry is a quintessential bedroom community, also boasting more than 15 parks, two-dozen lakes and a municipal golf course.

The 2,500-square-foot Casselberry Art House in Lake Concord Park offers community space for art classes, art exhibitions, educational programs, workshops, artist lectures and musical performances for all ages. The park also has a sculpture garden.

Adjacent to Casselberry is unincorporated Fern Park, which, as the name suggests, also traces its beginnings to the ferngrowing industry. Like Casselberry, it developed into a bedroom community for Orlando, starting in the 1950s.

Lake Mary Lake Mary became one of Central Florida’s hottest growth areas, thanks in large part to the dogged persistence of Jeno Paulucci, a self-made millionaire who made his first fortune selling frozen Chinese food and a second one selling frozen pizza.

The city today continues to sit at the epicenter of Florida’s High-Tech Corridor, which follows Interstate 4 from Tampa through Seminole County and northeast to Daytona Beach.

Along the route, government and industry have joined forces to attract leading-edge companies in such fields as telecommunications, medical technology and microelectronics.

In Lake Mary, with a population of about 18,000, dozens of such companies have set up shop in several sprawling business centers that have combined to create a Central Florida version of Silicon Valley.

But it all started as an isolated railroad station known as Bents Station, named for a local grove owner. In 1900, industry arrived in Bents Station when Planters Manufacturing Co. built a factory to produce starches, dextrins, farina and tapioca. The facility closed in 1910, however, and Bents — later renamed Lake Mary for the wife of a local pastor — seemed destined to remain an out-of-the-way country town.

That was the case for another half-century, until the construction of Interstate 4 and a successful campaign by community boosters to get a Lake Mary interchange tacked onto the project.

The resulting tracts of easily accessible land caught the eye of Paulucci. In the late 1970s, he announced plans to build a luxurious residential development and business hub called Heathrow, where the American Automobile Association (AAA) has its headquarters.

Today, such developments — both pricey and more moderate — are plentiful, along with an array of complementary mixed-use developments featuring shops, restaurants and apartment complexes..

Longwood Of all Seminole County’s municipalities, Longwood, population roughly 17,500, has the most history to preserve, and has done the best job of preserving it. But it’s still a modern place, with a plethora of exclusive country club communities, office parks and shopping centers.

In 1873 a New Englander named Edward Henck homesteaded a tract of land that he named Longwood, after a Boston suburb he had helped plan. Henck was also the town’s first postmaster and its first mayor.

And in what may have been his spare time, Henck co-founded the South Florida Railroad and built a line connecting Sanford and Orlando, which enabled Longwood to boom as a citrus- and lumber-shipping center as well as a winter resort destination.

But as crucial as Henck was to Longwood’s development, it was a carpenter named Josiah Clouser, a Henck employee,

Of all Seminole County’s municipalities, Longwood, popula­tion roughly 17,500, has the most history to preserve, and has done the best job of preserving it. This most modern of cities boasts a remarkable historic district encompassing a two-block area on Warren and Church avenues near the intersec­tion of County Road 427 and State Road 434.

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Although it barely topped 2,000 residents in the early 1980s, the Seminole County city of Oviedo today has a population of more than 41,000. Much of the business activity has moved from the “old” downtown to Oviedo on the Park, a 50-acre town center on the north side of Mitchell Hammock Road. The site encompasses homes, businesses, a lake, an amphitheater and a boardwalk as well as municipal buildings.

whose legacy is most visible.

Clouser, a Pennsylvanian, constructed most of the buildings still standing in Longwood’s remarkable historic district, a twoblock area on Warren and Church avenues near the intersection of County Road 427 and State Road 434.

Among the notable buildings are the Inside-Outside House, built in 1872, which is so-named because its construction features support studs on the outside. The prefabricated structure was built in New England by a former sailing captain and is believed to have been patterned after 19th-century whaling ships.

There are plenty of events to keep Longwood residents occupied. The annual Arts and Crafts Festival, held in November, features more than 200 artists and handcraft exhibitors selling unique items, fine jewelry and seasonal décor. Also, the Founders Day Spring Arts and Crafts Festival is held each March.

The city also has a Farmers’ Market every Saturday as well as a Cruise-In Car Show twice monthly and concerts and events at well-equipped Reiter Park. There are numerous annual events, including a Pirate Seafood Festival every March.

Oviedo While Oviedo might be one of Central Florida’s oldest communities, first settled some 140 years ago, this boomtown knows how to embrace newcomers.

Indeed, few Central Florida municipalities witnessed the kind of growth Oviedo saw beginning in the early 2000s and continued for much of the past 15 years. The town’s population is about 45,000, more than a tenfold increase since 1980. Oviedo has a mall, too — called, appropriately, the Oviedo Mall.

Oviedo’s growth was a long time coming. The area’s first settlers, who put down stakes near Lake Jesup in the 1860s, called

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it Solary’s Wharf. In 1883, postmaster Andrew Aulin dubbed it Oviedo, supposedly after seeing a Spanish town of the same name on a map.

Longtime locals point to 1964 as perhaps the most significant year in Oviedo’s history. That’s when a desolate 1,145acre tract in rural northeast Orange County, about seven miles east of the city, was selected as the site for Florida Technological University (now the University of Central Florida). The adjacent Central Florida Research Park, originally established in 1978, has since become the largest research park in Florida.

Since that time, Oviedo’s history has been rewritten, to a large extent, with orange groves and celery fields giving way to housing communities and a new mixed-use downtown, Oviedo on the Park, to accommodate the city’s soaring population. Most of the original two-block town was demolished so that State Road 434 (known as Central Avenue in Oviedo) could be widened.

But the small-town quirkiness isn’t gone. For several decades, broods of chickens have roamed the “old” downtown area, sometimes wandering into traffic. This, of course, gives literal meaning to the question: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

The chickens, whose origins are unknown, have been featured on Oviedo T-shirts and coffee mugs and a poster commemorating one of Oviedo’s yearly festivals, “A Taste of Oviedo.”

A rooster is painted on signs designating the city limits.

Sanford Located on the shores of Lake Monroe, Sanford once rivaled Orlando as the region’s largest city. A major distribution center for vegetables and citrus, it was known as “The Celery Capital of the World.”

But agriculture is no longer king in Sanford (population

62,000, making it Seminole County’s most populous city). Today, it’s the Seminole County seat, making county government the leading employer.

And, after years of stagnation, Sanford also is a city on the rise, thanks to a burgeoning airport, Orlando-Sanford International Airport — one of the fastest-growing in the country — and a downtown redevelopment initiative that has given life to a new dining, shopping and entertainment district, highlighted by the scenic Sanford Riverwalk along the shores of Lake Monroe.

Relocators to Sanford can choose from an array of new subdivisions on the city’s outskirts, or they can latch on to Victorian fixer-uppers in the city center or they can enjoy emerging apartment living as part of downtown’s rebirth.

Leading that rebirth is San Leon, a, new mixed-use development that hearkens back to the founding of the city and consists of ground-level retail with residential uses on top floors.

The hope, according to city officials, is that the project will spark a resurgence of new projects in the downtown area.

Sanford is home to Seminole State College of Florida and the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens as well as the Ritz Theater, a restored art-deco style movie house that hosts films and stage productions.

Winter Springs Until the mid-1950s, Winter Springs was nothing more than several square miles of scrub pine and palmettos. That’s when developers Raymond Moss and William Edgemon bought the land, subdivided it and introduced the Village of North Orlando.

At the start of the 1970s, a time of rampant growth throughout Central Florida, the area contained one small grocery store and roughly 300 homes straddling State Road 434.

Tuscawilla, eastern Seminole County’s first upscale golf course community, changed all that, along with a new city charter getting adopted in 1972, which gave the city the new name of Winter Springs. In the past two decades, the city’s growth has rivaled that of adjacent Oviedo.

The population is now 38,500 and growing, bolstered by projects such as the sprawling Town Center at the corner of State Road 434 and Tuskawilla Road.

Perhaps Winter Springs’ best-known annual activity is the ARToberFEST Festival of the Arts, held in October, which features German food and displays of arts and crafts.

leading employers Seminole County Public Schools Orlando Sanford International Airport AT&T Mobility Central Florida Regional Hospital Consulate Health Care LLC Chase Card Services Concentrix Deloitte Consulting LLP Seminole State College of Florida Seminole County Government

The Seminole County city of Sanford was restored and rejuvenated about 20 years ago. Hugging the shores of Lake Monroe, Sanford today is a lively destination for shopping and dining, and boasts an array of antique emporiums and art galleries.

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41

Osceola County’s Silver Spurs Rodeo, still held every year in Kissimmee, is a throwback to the days of the county’s stature as a cattle-ranching mecca.

There are still plenty of cowboys, along with others who like the area’s affordable homes and array of recreational opportunities.

osceola County STATISTICS: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, 2020

At a Glance Land Area: 1,385 square miles Population: 376,000 2010-2020 Population Growth: 45% 2025 Projected Population Growth: 452,100 Mean Travel Time to Work (Minutes): 34 Mean Household Income: $52,279 Education: Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 21.8%

Kissimmee As a whole, Osceola County had Florida’s second-largest growth in population from 2010 to 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That growth has been especially evident in Kissimmee, its largest city at approximately 75,000 people.

At the same time, by virtue of the vibe that continues to permeate the community, the one-time slogan for Kissimmee of “Big-time attractions, small-town hospitality” still fits.

A friendly, down-to-earth place, Kissimmee is still recognized for its biannual Silver Spurs Rodeo and its genuine cowboy panache. It just happens to exist alongside Walt Disney World, the world’s No. 1 tourist attraction.

Formerly called Allendale, the city began as a tiny trading post on the northern bank of Lake Tohopekaliga. It was incorporated in 1887 as Kissimmee — a Native American term meaning “long water.” It later became the Osceola County seat and, by the 1930s, cattle rivaled citrus as its main industry.

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H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

But housing now powers the economy. With developable land becoming scarce in Orange and Seminole counties, much of the region’s residential growth for the next decade is expected to take place in and around Kissimmee, according to a study by the Urban Land Institute.

To make certain that at least some of Kissimmee’s heritage is preserved, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency continues to actively improve the historic downtown district near Main Street and U.S. 192 with appealing mixed-use projects.

One example: City Centre Kissimmee, which consists of luxury residential units plus parking garages as well as retail, restaurants, financial institutions and professional offices.

Also spurring growth around Kissimmee is NeoCity, a mixed use “smart city” and technology incubator that will eventually contain, in addition to its research and manufacturing facilities, a 1.4 million-square-foot retail and entertainment hub and 1,150 condominiums with nearly 400,000 square feet of amenities and common space.

In addition, Kissimmee remains a sporting paradise, with numerous boat ramps on the shores of Lake Toho, which is known for excellent bass fishing.

Southport Park, for example, offers covered pavilions, grills and campgrounds, while picnic areas abound at Partin Triangle Park and Whaley’s Landing. Hunters can enjoy the wideopen Osceola Plain, home to turkey, white-tailed deer and fox squirrels.

Kissimmee is also culturally diverse. About 68 percent of its population identifies as Hispanic, and many arts and entertainment venues reflect that burgeoning international flair.

St. Cloud St. Cloud, located on the southern shore of East Lake Tohopekaliga, has been called “A Soldier’s Colony,” “The Friendly Soldier City,” “The Wonder City” and “The City of Schools.”

Also, it was known as an inexpensive place for tourists to stay while visiting Walt Disney World.

In the 1970s, St. Cloud teamed with much-larger Kissimmee to market itself internationally as an affordable alternative for vacationers wishing to explore the theme parks without paying resort hotel prices.

Yet, these days, city officials are working to downplay that tourism connection while promoting the charms of St. Cloud as a great place to live.

The military references hearken back to 1909, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization for Union soldiers who had served in the Civil War, bought 35,000 acres for development as a community for veterans.

More than a century later, St. Cloud boasts one of Central Florida’s most charming downtown districts. It’s replete with antique shops occupying vintage storefronts, several excellent restaurants, a historical museum and Veteran’s Memorial Park.

Meanwhile, growth continues, with St. Cloud’s population now exceeding 57,000. And there are some exciting community amenities on the way for them to enjoy.

For example, the city’s first-ever splash pad, inspired by Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest, opened earlier this

year in the 65th Infantry Veterans Park in the expansive community of Buenaventura Lakes.

The park, which already includes a highly acclaimed disk golf course, serves as a tribute to the 65th Infantry Regiment, which was nicknamed “The Borinqueneers.” The storied Puerto Rican regiment of the U.S. Army distinguished itself during the Korean War. However, considerable eye-popping growth is slated for just outside St. Cloud proper. This summer, a St. Cloud developer purchased the nearly 6,000-acre Green Island Ranch property south of Lake Tohopekaliga that could eventually encompass more than 17,000 homes along with office and commercial development.

leading employers School District of Osceola County Walt Disney Company Orange Lake Resorts & Holiday Inn Club Vacations Osceola Regional Medical Center AdventHealth Celebration Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center Westgate Vacation Villas Osceola County Government Valencia College Osceola Wilson Resort Management

It’s called Lake County for a reason, dotted with big bodies of water like Lake Minneola.

In fact, the county encompasses more than 1,000 lakes and 202 square miles of water.

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43

The county mixes the past and the future, with the iconic Citrus Tower (left), built in the 1950s to provide views of citrus groves that are now mostly under development. n The future is represented

by Olympus, a new healthoriented development that marks the beginning of Wellness Way.

lake County STATISTICS: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, 2020

At a Glance Land Area: 1,156 square miles Population: 370,000 2010-2020 Population Growth: 29% 2025 Projected Population Growth: 410,900 Mean Travel Time to Work (Minutes): 30 Mean Household Income: $54,513 Education: Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 24%

Clermont and South Lake County The Citrus Tower, built in 1956, was once an awesome attraction that invited picnickers and tourists to its observation deck for panoramic views of Lake County’s sprawling citrus groves.

The tower — now considered a kitschy relic of a bygone era — is still there, but the landscape has starkly changed. Now you’ll see thousands of new homes on the rolling hills that have always distinguished burgeoning Lake County from its geographically challenged neighbors.

That isn’t to say sprawl has destroyed Lake County’s charm.

There are still groves, woods, barns and more than 1,400 lakes scattered across 221 square miles. The county’s unpretentious municipalities still boast quaint business districts with momand-pop shops.

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H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

Yet, like other previously rural areas in Central Florida, Lake County is growing fast — particularly in south Lake County, which has increasingly become an attractive suburban alternative for people who work in more populous Orange and Seminole counties.

The city of Clermont, population of more than 44,000 and steadily rising, is ground zero for the county’s housing boom.

The stage was set with construction of metro Orlando’s Western Beltway, which has made a once-daunting commute quite manageable.

Clermont is truly at the crossroads of Florida, located at the intersection of State Road 50, which runs east and west, and U.S. 27, which runs north and south. Bordered by Lake Minnehaha on the south and Lake Minneola on the north, Clermont is on a chain of 16 lakes connected by the Palatlakaha River in the Ocklawaha Basin of tributaries of the St. Johns River.

“The Gem of the Hills,” as Clermont is sometimes called, also is popular among triathlon enthusiasts. Orlando Health South Lake Hospital’s all-in-one campus is home to the USA Triathlon National Training Center, which is designed to meet the needs of all ages and fitness levels.

Growth, then, is both literally and figuratively healthy in and around Clermont. And it’s about to get even more so with Wellness Way. The southeast portion of the county, formerly known as the South Lake Sector Planning Area, encompasses nearly 15,500 acres east of U.S. 27 and south of State Road 50. The mostly rural expanse has been poised for major development as a sort

of expansion — or even a duplication — of booming Horizon West in bordering west Orange County.

Comparable to Horizon West, multiuse Wellness Way is divided into smaller sectors, including a Town Center. It will eventually include about 16,500 residential units, but that number remains somewhat fluid for now. Suffice it to say, it’ll be big.

Infrastructure is being planned or is underway with multiple new roads designed to literally connect into the future. This includes several new connector roads that will connect Horizon West to neighboring communities in Lake County.

Clearly, there are big visions for this rustic setting, which today is marked primarily by citrus groves, bumpy dirt roads, lakes and hills, and pastures where cows contentedly graze. All the while, homebuilders (and developers) have been watching and taking notice — and already have gotten busy with what surely will accelerate stark changes to the landscape.

At the center of the initial activity is master-planned Olympus, a 243-acre community in Clermont bordered to the west

by U.S. 27 and 4,372-acre Lake Louisa State Park. Proximity of a development like Olympus to Clermont makes a lot of sense, if you know anything about Clermont.

While some cities tout the names of corporations they land or public lands they acquire, Clermont lists the names of Olympians who train in their town. Last year, Triathlete magazine named the city one of the nation’s top 10 for triathletes — putting the Lake County hamlet in the same league as San Diego, California; Austin, Texas; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

“This suburb of Orlando is quickly building a reputation as

one of the country’s true tri meccas,” magazine editors wrote.

Athletes come to the rolling, lake-dotted area to train yearround on some of Florida’s rare hills. Nowhere else in Central Florida — or perhaps the state — do road signs declare “Caution: High Cyclist Activity” and “Cyclists May Take the Full Lane.”

Essentially marking the start of Wellness Way, Olympus features uncommon elevations and vistas, a natural lake and full entitlement for more than 1,000 residential units to accompany 1 million-plus square feet of office, medical, retail, restaurant and industrial space.

The planned centerpiece of this initial community will be the Olympus Athlete Center. It comes with all the right buzzwords: “sports performance,” “athlete nutritional services” and “media and broadcast facilities.”

As planned, the sports campus would include a tennis center, an ice sports arena, an aquatics center, an area for beach volleyball and a field sports complex for lacrosse, soccer and rugby.

You can kind of imagine svelte bodies sporting the Olympus logo on T- shirts: “Epic Every Day.” The arena, by the way, might accommodate concerts and other events.

Activity has come in stages, beginning in 2018, when master plans were first outlined to the Lake County Commission by Winter Park-based Olympus Sports and Entertainment Group, the community’s developer.

Although the infrastructure phase of Olympus didn’t begin until last summer, during the next decade — if all goes as planned — Olympus is expected to create more than 5,000 jobs and generate more than $1.4 billion in local economic impact.

Downtown Mount Dora is a busy and scenic place, filled with intriguing shops and restaurants. Southern Living magazine spotlighted the city in a story called “Small Towns We Love.” The business district is also home to a major annual art festival.

summer 2022

45

As part of the approved plan, the development will contain 48 acres of nonresidential land focused on agribusiness and community recreational facilities, along with a 200-foot buffer of trees and five miles of interconnected community trails for walking, hiking, biking and horseback riding.

Mount Dora To the north, Mount Dora, population 15,200, continues to be a center of development, with Eustis and Tavares also attracting significant attention to the so-called Golden Triangle.

Mount Dora, the aptly named “New England of the South,” was founded in 1874, when homesteaders first discovered the gently sloping lakeside hills that rise to 184 feet -- hardly a mountain, but a formidable height by Central Florida standards.

The city hugs the shores of 3,600-acre Lake Dora, named for Dora Ann Drawdy, who homesteaded two miles south with her husband in 1846.

Today, downtown Mount Dora contains dozens of historic buildings housing antique shops, art galleries, boutiques and restaurants. Tree-shaded Donnelly Park occupies a full block in the center of town, inviting picnickers and tennis players to enjoy the lush surroundings.

Within walking distance is Palm Island Park, adjacent to Gilbert Park, which boasts one of the most beautiful nature trails

One of the major attractions in Polk County is Florida Southern College, which encompasses the largest number of buildings designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Just about every structure on the campus is a distinctive modernist masterpiece, all carefully restored and maintained.

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H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

in the state.

The downtown area also hosts an annual art festival, as well as numerous antique and craft fairs, specialty auto shows and historic home tours. The city has a respected community theater, too, along with an art center and a historical museum.

But this old-fashioned setting, like many others, is chasing high-tech growth. For example, the 850 acres along State Roads 46 and 453 comprise the Wolf Branch Innovation District, a partnership begun in 2019 between the city and Lake County to attract new business.

leading employers Publix Supermarkets AdventHealth Waterman UF Health Leesburg Hospital Orlando Health South Lake Hospital Walmart Supercenters The Villages of Lake-Sumter Inc. Cornerstone Hospice & Palliative Care Lowe’s Home Improvement Centers Lifestream Behavioral Center Carroll Fulmer Logistics Corp.

polk County STATISTICS: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, 2020

At a Glance Land Area: 1,874 square miles Population: 761,000 2010-2020 Population Growth: 20% 2025 Projected Population Growth: 766,400 Mean Travel Time to Work (Minutes): 27.8 Mean Household Income: $50,584 Education: Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 20.2%

Shine a spotlight on Polk County, which sits in the geographical center of Florida, and you’ll realize that, despite its low profile, the county is both distinct and growing — particularly in the Four Corners area where Polk, Lake, Orange and Osceola counties meet.

Growth is happening there by virtue of neighboring communities, including Horizon West and its five designated mixed-use villages, plus the bulging megadevelopments Celebration and Bay Lake, among others.

Polk County has picturesque small towns and giant masterplanned communities; historic tourist attractions; a college (Florida Southern in Lakeland) designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright; a vibrant arts community; and a diversified economy.

Tourism was thriving here many years before Walt Disney started buying land in Central Florida, and visitors continue to boost the local economy at attractions such as the Legoland

In Polk County, Bok Tower Gardens is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places you’ll find anywhere. Its massive carillon tower was dedicated during the presidency of Calvin Coolidge.

Florida Resort in Winter Haven and the historic Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales.

Polk County has its share of bustling midsized cities, including its two largest: Lakeland (population 102,700) and Winter Haven (population 36,700). Laid-back Bartow (population 18,500) is the county’s seat, while Davenport (population 7,300) has emerged in recent years as one of the region’s hottest boomtowns for new development.

Lake Wales (population 16,000) has been named Florida’s population center by the U.S. Census Bureau — the result of a geographic calculation done every decade to summarize population shifts across the country. It’s the closest city to the middle of Florida’s population.

A thriving arts scene also is evident in Polk, with museums, art centers and theaters. Sports tourism is also a very big deal.

In fact, Polk County Tourism and Sports Marketing (PSCM) — part of Visit Central Florida — is the only organization in the state to earn both the Sports Organization of the Year award from the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and the Florida Sports Foundation’s Sports Commission of the Year Award.

Also, PCSM has been recognized as the Sports Organization of the Year by both the Independent Softball Association and Youth Basketball of America. It’s an official division of Polk County government.

How’s this for a tourist attraction in youth athletics? Lake Myrtle Sports Park in Auburndale is a multipurpose sports complex that encompasses nine collegiate-size baseball fields (sodded with type 419 Bermuda grass on all playing surfaces) and 11 lighted soccer fields.

Events hosted there have ranged from the National Dog Agility Championships and regional rugby championships to the RussMatt Central Florida Baseball Invitational — which is the nation’s largest collegiate baseball tournament.

Similarly, the AdventHealth Fieldhouse and Conference Center in Winter Haven features a 58,400 square foot multiuse gymnasium space that accommodates six basketball courts or 12 volleyball courts and a second-floor observation area.

Polk County is home to more than 220 annual sporting events and serves as the headquarters for USA Water Ski and the Florida Youth Soccer Association.

leading employers Publix Supermarkets Polk County School Board Lakeland Regional Health Walmart Amazon.com Geico City of Lakeland BayCare AdventHealth Polk County Board of County Commissioners

summer 2022

47

Daytona Beach’s brightly lit boardwalk is known to vacationers and spring breakers, of course. But the World’s Most Famous Beach is within easy driving distance of anywhere in Central Florida.

volusia County STATISTICS: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, 2020

At a Glance Land Area: 1,103 square miles Population: 555,000 2010-2020 Population Growth: 14% 2025 Projected Population Growth: 573,800 Mean Travel Time to Work (Minutes): 25.9 Mean Household Income: $49,494 Education: Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: 23.7% Geographically, Volusia County sits 50 miles northeast of Orlando, between the St. Johns River and the Atlantic Ocean. But these days, in a region where the growth is pushing outward in all four directions, geography doesn’t mean as much as it once did.

Indeed, as metro Orlando spreads north and east along Interstate 4 through Seminole County, west Volusia is directly in growth’s path.

Today the area, once identified almost exclusively with Daytona Beach (population 72,600), is emerging as a suburb of Orlando. For example, with 96,000 residents, Deltona has long since surpassed Daytona Beach as the largest municipality in the county. It has seen monumental growth since 1980.

Much of the activity is spurred by commercial development along the High-Tech Corridor, which runs the length of Interstate 4 between Tampa and Daytona Beach.

In addition, the widening of the Interstate 4/St. Johns River Bridge alleviated one of the region’s most annoying traffic bottlenecks, making the western portion of Volusia an easy 30-minute commute to downtown Orlando.

Buyers have discovered the impressive stock of historic homes west of downtown DeLand (population 37,700), which is clearly one of the coolest small towns in Florida.

The quaint downtown district, which is on the National

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H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

Register of Historic Places, is thick with eateries and antique shops. And stately Stetson University, which has been located here since 1883, adds an air of permanence.

Meanwhile, tiny Lake Helen (population 2,800) is holding its breath as Victoria Park adds 4,000 homes and 10,000 residents right near the city’s border. The rural enclave is expected to grow nearly 20 percent by 2025.

Those interested in more natural settings, plus an unusual lunch, may head north on U.S. 17 to De León Springs State Park, where you can cook your own pancakes at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill and then paddle a canoe through the wilderness.

In the winter, manatees seeking warmer water can be seen lolling around at Blue Springs State Park. In the summer, humans seeking relief plunge into the same bubbling blue oasis.

Many of the changes in Volusia County involve Daytona Beach, especially around Interstate 95 and LPGA Boulevard.

Five or six years ago, big stories included the arrival of a Trader Joe’s distribution center, the opening of Tanger Outlets Mall and the Tomoka Town Center, and the completion of a new headquarters site for TopBuild Corp., a Fortune 1000 company.

Then came more retail, restaurants, apartment complexes and the massive live/work/play communities of Mosaic and Latitude Margaritaville.

leading employers AdventHealth System Halifax Hospital System Publix Supermarkets Walmart Associates Inc. Stetson University Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Florida Healthcare Plans Sykes Communications Winn Dixie Supermarkets Brunswick Corp.

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2022-23 GUIDE TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

■ SCHOOL GRADES ■ STANDARDIZED TEST PASSAGE RATES ■ HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATES A special feature of Homebuyer: Central Florida Edition

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H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

School Grade 2019

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

Graduation Rate 2020-21

71.7

-

LAKE ORIENTA

53

62

55

-

B

B

69.8

-

B

56.4

-

LAWTON

74

77

66

-

A

A

30.1

-

BENTLEY

59

53

50

-

C

B

65.4

-

LAYER

63

55

60

-

C

B

51.5

-

CARILLON

72

71

72

-

A

A

29.0

-

LONGWOOD

62

63

54

-

B

A

59.5

-

CASSELBERRY

60

72

48

-

A

A

70.6

-

MIDWAY

48

58

47

-

B

C

84.8

-

CHOICES IN LEARNING (CHARTER)

83

79

74

-

A

A

21.7

-

PARTIN

81

79

82

-

A

A

24.0

-

CRYSTAL LAKE

68

64

66

-

B

A

49.6

-

PINE CREST

27

27

30

-

D

C

87.4

-

EASTBROOK

54

58

54

-

B

C

59.1

-

RAINBOW

81

86

76

-

A

A

37.7

-

ENGLISH ESTATES

51

48

51

-

C

C

68.4

-

RED BUG

73

65

65

-

B

B

48.1

-

EVANS

74

78

80

-

A

A

36.7

-

SABAL POINT

77

86

84

-

A

A

30.6

-

FOREST CITY

64

60

53

-

C

C

68.0

-

SPRING LAKE

40

42

37

-

C

C

77.4

-

GENEVA

63

70

70

-

B

B

43.2

-

STENSTROM

72

68

64

-

B

A

40.9

-

GOLDSBORO MAGNET

71

66

69

-

B

B

41.4

-

STERLING PARK

58

57

52

-

C

B

54.3

-

HAMILTON

48

49

58

-

C

C

83.8

-

WALKER

82

83

73

-

A

A

25.2

-

HEATHROW

81

82

83

-

A

A

20.8

-

WEKIVA

78

75

80

-

A

A

36.1

-

HIGHLANDS

68

66

61

-

B

B

59.9

-

WICKLOW

40

42

32

-

C

B

82.6

-

IDYLLWILDE

43

46

43

-

C

C

78.5

-

WILSON

79

79

77

-

A

A

24.3

-

KEETH

75

73

71

-

B

A

29.4

-

WINTER SPRINGS

56

53

44

-

C

C

76.5

-

LAKE MARY

66

68

64

-

B

A

46.5

-

WOODLANDS

76

76

65

-

A

A

36.5

-

School Grade 2022

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

C

C

Graduation Rate 2021-22

B

-

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

-

56

School Grade 2019

57

56

School Grade 2022

52

55

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

52

BEAR LAKE

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

ALTAMONTE

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

MAKING THE GRADE

School grades provide an easily understandable way to measure the performance of a school. Schools are graded A, B, C, D or F, and the grade is determined using up to 11 components. There are four achievement components, which are calculated using student performance on statewide standardized assessments, including comprehensive assessments, end-of-course (EOC) assessments and Florida Alternate Assessments (FAA). The achievement components measure the percentage of full-year enrolled students who achieve a passing score. There are also learning gains components and a middle school acceleration component, as well as high school acceleration and graduation rate components. Each component is worth up to 100 points in the overall calculation. The four achievement components — English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies — are shown on the following pages. Also shown are school grades for two years, high school graduation rates and the percentage of students on free or reduced lunch programs. For more information about the complexities of school grading, and to see results of the other components that determine school grades, visit the Florida Department of Education website at fldoe.com. School grades were not given for two prior years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SEMINOLE COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

SEMINOLE COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOLS CHILES

69

73

68

84

A

A

29.2

-

MILWEE

56

56

56

66

B

B

65

-

GREENWOOD LAKES

55

50

53

76

B

B

66.2

-

ROCK LAKE

66

76

62

74

A

A

37.1

-

INDIAN TRAILS

61

61

66

76

B

A

46.1.

-

SANFORD

66

69

68

82

A

A

49.6

-

JACKSON HEIGHTS

67

73

71

88

A

A

33.9

-

SOUTH SEMINOLE

53

56

48

74

B

B

70.8

-

MARKHAM WOODS

55

63

59

73

B

B

50.4

-

TEAGUE

52

57

48

78

B

B

58.5

-

MILLENNIUM

48

49

51

69

C

C

72.2

-

TUSKAWILLA

54

60

54

79

B

B

54.8

-

SEMINOLE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS CROOMS ACADEMY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

75

HAGERTY

71

69

81

83

A

A

23.6

98

LAKE BRANTLEY

-

-

-

-

I

B

47.1

-

LAKE HOWELL LAKE MARY

65

85

90

A

A

42.8

100

-

-

-

-

I

B

54.5

-

59

43

67

68

B

B

44.2

97

LYMAN

55

37

69

64

B

B

54.7

97

OVIEDO

64

66

84

84

A

A

32.5

99

SEMINOLE

51

37

61

60

B

B

56.5

91

WINTER SPRINGS

-

-

-

-

I

B

52.6

-

SEMINOLE COUNTY VIRTUAL FRANCHISE

-

-

-

-

I

A

52.1

-

80

85

80

95

A

A

29.8

-

SEMINOLE COUNTY COMBINED SCHOOLS GALILEO SCHOOL FOR GIFTED LEARNING (K-8 CHARTER)

63

63

54

92

A

A

30.4

-

SEMINOLE SCIENCE (K-8 CHARTER)

SUMMER 2022

51

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

School Grade 2022

School Grade 2019

55

48

-

C

B

-

-

-

-

I

Graduation Rate 2020-21

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

52

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Graduation Rate 2020-21

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

School Grade 2019

School Grade 2022

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

93.7

-

OSCEOLA COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS BOGGY CREEK

49

41

42

BRIDGEPREP ACADEMY OF ST. CLOUD (CHARTER)

61

53

38

CENTRAL AVENUE

30

28

18

CHESTNUT SCHOOL FOR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

44

39

CREATIVE INSPIRATION JOURNEY SCHOOL OF ST. CLOUD (CHARTER)

48

29

-

C

B

100

-

B

-

51.5

-

D

C

100

-

34

-

C

B

100

-

33

-

D

-

34.3

-

LAKEVIEW LINCOLN-MARTI (CHARTER)

CYPRESS

38

40

36

-

C

B

100

-

DEERWOOD

43

41

37

-

C

C

100

-

EAST LAKE

47

50

42

-

C

B

78.2

-

FLORA RIDGE

38

36

34

-

C

C

95.7

-

66.7

MICHIGAN AVENUE

56

57

41

-

C

B

85.5

-

MILL CREEK

44

45

51

-

C

C

100

-

NARCOOSSEE

65

64

59

-

B

A

33.1

-

NEPTUNE

47

51

55

-

C

C

91.6

-

PARTIN SETTLEMENT

51

48

47

-

C

C

62.6

-

PLEASANT HILL

42

44

39

-

C

C

100

-

POINCIANA ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS

43

33

33

-

C

C

100

-

REEDY CREEK

40

35

42

-

C

C

97

-

59

62

43

-

C

B

70.3

-

HARMONY

68

65

54

B

A

37.4

-

ST. CLOUD

HICKORY TREE

57

61

48

-

B

B

41.3

-

SUNRISE

44

38

38

-

C

B

91.1

-

HIGHLANDS

37

30

28

-

D

C

100

-

37

39

40

-

C

C

100

-

KISSIMMEE

39

39

37

-

C

B

95

-

THACKER AVENUE SCHOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES VENTURA

49

45

44

-

B

C

100

-

KOA

30

36

35

-

C

C

100

-

-

-

-

-

I

-

83.5

VICORY (CHARTER)

OSCEOLA COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOLS DENN JOHN

31

31

36

59

C

C

100

-

NEPTUNE

52

51

55

65

B

B

82.7

-

DISCOVERY INTERMEDIATE

33

22

39

57

C

C

100

-

PARKWAY

35

28

34

53

C

C

94.7

-

HARMONY

55

59

55

74

B

-

35.3

HORIZON

40

40

51

73

C

B

70.7

-

SPORTS LEADERSHIP ARTS MANAGEMENT (CHARTER)

72

85

85

100

A

D

69.9

-

ST. CLOUD

48

55

62

79

B

B

79.2

-

KISSIMMEE

32

33

32

56

C

C

100

-

NARCOOSSEE

56

58

61

83

B

A

52.3

-

OSCEOLA COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS CELEBRATION

51

40

63

62

B

B

56.8

94

NEOCITY ACADEMY

95

86

90

-

A

A

28.4

-

FOUR CORNERS UPPER (CHARTER)

45

41

39

61

B

B

35.7

100

NEW DIMENSIONS (CHARTER)

60

55

71

84

A

A

79.9

99

OSCEOLA

33

25

55

51

C

C

88.4

91

POINCIANA

32

17

44

51

C

C

92.4

93

PROFESSIONAL & TECHNICAL

85

70

87

97

A

A

69.3

99

ST. CLOUD

51

39

65

75

B

B

66.7

97

TOHOPEKALIGA

43

28

47

61

C

D

54

97

A

33.4

100

GATEWAY

45

37

57

59

C

C

85.3

88

HARMONY

46

40

55

66

B

B

35.7

95

LIBERTY

32

14

39

43

C

C

96.1

89

MATER BRIGHTON LAKES PREPARATORY (CHARTER)

43

29

29

32

D

-

76.9

-

OSCEOLA COUNTY COMBINED SCHOOLS AMERICAN CLASSICAL ACADEMY (K-12 CHARTER) BELLALAGO ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER) BRIDGEPREP ACADEMY OSCEOLA COUNTY (K-8 CHARTER)

60

49

54

85

B

-

12

-

OSCEOLA COUNTY SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS (6-12)

89

87

83

94

A

50

40

45

78

C

B

80.4

-

OSCEOLA SCIENCE (K-8 CHARTER)

64

60

56

80

A

B

63.7

-

32

30

22

49

D

D

79.6

-

OSCEOLA VIRTUAL (FRANCHISE)

77

55

67

81

A

A

14.7

98

CANOE CREEK ACADEMY (K-8)

59

59

61

79

B

-

43.7

-

47

44

35

65

C

A

83.4

-

CELEBRATION SCHOOL (K-8)

67

66

71

88

A

A

28.8

-

50

50

44

71

C

C

68.7

-

FLORIDA CYBER ACADEMY AT OSCEOLA (K-12 CHARTER)

-

-

-

-

I

C

70.2

-

48

49

52

69

B

A

88.7

-

FOUR CORNERS (K-8 CHARTER)

52

59

52

-

B

B

79.7

-

KISSIMMEE ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER) MATER ACADEMY ST. CLOUD (K-8 CHARTER) MATER BRIGHTON LAKES ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER)

44

48

49

76

B

B

77

-

48

37

42

51

C

C

79

-

44

35

33

67

C

C

60.3

-

P. M. WELLS ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER) RENAISSANCE AT BOGGY CREEK (K-8 CHARTER) RENAISSANCE AT POINCIANA (K-8 CHARTER) RENAISSANCE AT TAPESTRY (K-8 CHARTER) ST. CLOUD PREPARATORY ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER)

40

37

28

47

C

B

80.9

-

MATER PALMS ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER)

55

51

39

71

B

A

70.5

-

52

H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

37

30

35

59

C

C

75.6

100

VICTORY (6-12 CHARTER)

24

17

18

33

D

C

80.5

97

WESTSIDE (K-8)

41

35

42

69

C

B

76.3

-

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

School Grade 2022

School Grade 2019

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

Graduation Rate 2020-21

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

B

D

100

-

-

C

C

100

-

METROWEST

46

48

44

-

C

C

88.2

-

MICHAEL MCCOY

42

54

49

-

B

C

100

-

MILLENNIA

43

37

31

-

C

C

77.5

-

MILLENNIA GARDENS

33

30

27

-

D

C

100

-

MOLLIE RAY

26

52

23

-

C

C

100

-

MOSS PARK

72

76

73

-

A

A

24.9

-

NORTHLAKE PARK COMMUNITY

77

85

80

-

A

A

21.1

-

OAK HILL

44

45

56

-

C

C

100

-

OAKLAND AVENUE (CHARTER)

65

65

74

-

B

B

21.8

-

OAKSHIRE

57

66

42

-

B

B

81.7

-

OCOEE

43

44

38

-

C

C

100

-

ORANGE CENTER

38

56

45

-

B

D

100

-

ORLANDO SCIENCE (CHARTER)

78

81

76

-

A

A

32.5

-

ORLO VISTA

34

52

31

-

C

C

100

-

PALM LAKE

64

68

71

-

A

A

41

-

PALMETTO

32

42

42

-

C

C

100

-

PHILLIS WHEATLEY

31

58

64

-

B

D

100

-

PINAR

45

54

54

-

B

B

100

-

PINE HILLS

35

36

27

-

C

C

100

-

-

PINECREST ACADEMY AVALON (CHARTER)

75

80

63

A

A

38.5

-

-

PINECREST CREEK (CHARTER)

76

68

-

-

A

A

87.6

-

100

-

PINELOCH

25

30

25

-

F

C

100

-

A

28.6

-

PINEWOOD

43

46

38

-

C

D

100

-

B

B

100

-

PRAIRIE LAKE

48

51

57

-

B

C

90

-

-

A

A

24

-

PRINCETON

77

69

73

-

A

A

31.7

-

-

-

I

C

100

-

RIDGEWOOD PARK

32

33

31

-

C

C

100

-

58

49

-

C

B

80.1

-

RIVERDALE

51

53

53

-

C

B

100

-

31

32

37

-

C

C

100

-

RIVERSIDE

40

48

49

-

C

B

100

-

ENDEAVOR

67

64

66

-

B

A

66.9

-

ROCK LAKE

23

56

30

-

B

C

100

-

ENGELWOOD

34

38

32

-

C

C

100

-

ROCK SPRINGS

46

50

53

-

C

A

91.4

-

FORSYTH WOODS

50

52

52

-

B

B

100

-

ROLLING HILLS

30

32

34

-

D

B

100

-

HIAWASSEE

36

40

34

-

C

C

100

-

ROSEMONT

31

46

33

-

C

B

100

-

HIDDEN OAKS

57

59

59

-

B

B

77.8

-

SADLER

26

36

33

-

C

D

100

-

HILLCREST

87

84

88

-

A

A

27.2

-

SALLY RIDE

50

53

45

-

C

A

100

HUNGERFORD

39

47

41

-

C

C

100

-

SAND LAKE

69

69

63

-

A

A

34.7

-

HUNTERS CREEK

67

72

67

-

A

B

38.4

-

SHENANDOAH

58

64

56

-

B

C

91.3

-

INDEPENDENCE

83

88

85

-

A

A

18.8

-

SHINGLE CREEK

38

46

47

-

C

C

100

-

IVEY LANE

33

56

40

-

B

C

100

-

SOUTHWOOD

63

69

63

-

A

B

85.2

-

JOHN YOUNG

61

61

70

-

B

A

89.4

-

SPRING LAKE

47

52

52

-

C

B

100

-

KEENES CROSSING

80

77

75

-

A

A

19.1

-

STONE LAKES

76

81

73

-

A

B

25.8

-

KILLARNEY

49

42

43

-

B

A

100

-

SUMMERLAKE

77

82

72

-

B

-

15.7

-

LAKE GEM

39

43

39

-

C

D

100

-

SUN BLAZE

72

77

65

-

A

A

23.9

-

LAKE GEORGE

53

65

43

-

B

B

94.2

-

SUNRIDGE

-

-

-

-

I

B

76.9

-

LAKE SILVER

41

36

34

-

D

C

100

-

SUNRISE

77

77

77

-

A

A

29.8

-

LAKE SYBELIA

49

51

52

-

C

C

85.1

-

SUNSET PARK

66

70

66

-

B

B

24.3

-

LAKE WESTON

25

47

33

-

C

B

100

-

SUNSHINE

55

57

45

-

B

-

71.7

-

LAKE WHITNEY

82

89

81

-

A

A

18.2

-

TANGELO PARK

-

-

-

-

I

C

100

-

LAKEMONT

61

62

59

-

B

A

71.6

-

THORNEBROOKE

80

83

78

-

A

A

30.3

-

LAKEVILLE

38

48

39

-

C

C

100

-

THREE POINTS

38

42

39

-

C

C

100

-

LANCASTER

32

40

34

-

C

B

100

-

TILDENVILLE

66

69

73

-

A

A

60.6

-

LAUREATE PARK

82

82

73

-

C

B

13.9

-

TIMBER LAKES

77

79

77

-

A

A

30.4

-

LAWTON CHILES

48

63

64

-

A

A

100

-

UNION PARK

-

-

-

-

I

D

100

-

LITTLE RIVER

50

51

42

-

C

C

100

-

VENTURA

43

52

37

-

B

D

100

-

LOCKHART

36

36

38

-

C

D

100

-

VILLAGE PARK

67

76

63

-

A

-

28.9

-

LOVELL

36

42

40

-

C

C

100

-

VISTA LAKES

65

68

66

-

B

A

47.5

-

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Graduation Rate 2020-21

-

39

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

-

54

School Grade 2019

63

46

School Grade 2022

58

MEADOW WOODS

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

LUCIOUS & EMMA NIXON ACADEMY (CHARTER)

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

ORANGE COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS ALOMA

57

62

48

-

B

C

89.5

-

ANDOVER

60

66

64

-

A

A

67.3

-

APOPKA

-

-

-

-

I

B

79.8

-

AVALON

79

83

73

-

A

A

23.7

-

AZALEA PARK

54

58

51

-

B

C

100

-

BALDWIN PARK

79

79

77

-

A

A

31.9

-

BAY LAKE

71

77

72

-

A

A

31.7

-

BAY MEADOWS

72

76

71

-

A

B

31.8

-

BONNEVILLE

49

56

59

-

B

C

100

-

BROOKSHIRE

65

65

69

-

B

B

37.8

-

CAMELOT

58

60

49

-

C

A

78.7

-

CASTLE CREEK

53

59

51

-

B

C

100

-

CASTLEVIEW

74

75

74

A

-

29.8

-

CATALINA

24

31

25

-

F

C

100

-

CHENEY

53

63

54

-

B

B

100

-

CHICKASAW

49

46

46

-

C

B

100

-

CITRUS

55

54

53

-

B

C

98.1

-

CLAY SPRINGS

53

55

53

-

C

C

90.4

-

COLUMBIA

71

79

81

-

A

A

83.1

-

CONWAY

44

47

41

-

C

B

100

-

CYPRESS SPRINGS

67

74

76

-

A

A

65.7

-

DEERWOOD

71

76

74

-

A

A

71.5

-

DILLARD STREET

47

48

37

-

C

C

89.7

DOMMERICH

89

93

92

-

A

A

13.9

DOVER SHORES

54

55

45

-

B

B

DR. PHILLIPS

71

76

65

-

B

DREAM LAKE

50

60

49

-

EAGLE CREEK

80

80

75

EAGLES NEST

-

-

EAST LAKE

63

ECCLESTON

SUMMER 2022

53

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

School Grade 2022

School Grade 2019

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

Graduation Rate 2020-21

A

-

84.4

-

WETHERBEE

68

72

69

-

A

B

68.5

-

-

F

C

100

-

WHISPERING OAK

85

89

83

-

A

A

16.2

-

WATER SPRING

72

74

70

-

A

-

21

-

WILLIAM FRANGUS

43

45

35

-

C

C

100

-

WATERBRIDGE

49

53

52

-

B

C

87.4

-

WILLIAM S. MAXEY

57

71

47

-

B

A

100

-

WATERFORD

68

65

62

-

B

C

66

-

WINDERMERE

85

89

85

-

A

A

9

-

WEST CREEK

65

68

63

-

A

A

31.9

-

WINEGARD

40

49

33

-

C

C

100

-

WEST OAKS

37

35

37

-

C

C

100

-

WOLF LAKE

64

74

68

-

A

A

35.3

-

WESTBROOKE

72

83

75

-

A

B

37.2

-

WYNDHAM LAKES

60

63

51

-

B

C

71.3

-

WESTPOINTE

68

67

54

-

A

B

68.2

-

ZELLWOOD

40

43

39

-

C

C

95

-

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

Graduation Rate 2020-21

-

19

School Grade 2019

63

19

School Grade 2022

67

27

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

55

WASHINGTON SHORES

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

VISTA POINTE

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

ORANGE COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

ORANGE COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOLS APOPKA

-

-

-

-

I

C

91.5

-

LEGACY

-

-

-

-

I

C

84.2

-

AVALON

70

79

66

87

A

A

20.8

-

LIBERTY

42

38

42

60

C

C

100

-

BRIDGEWATER

71

73

70

86

A

A

16

-

LOCKHART

32

37

31

58

C

C

100

-

CARVER

-

-

-

-

I

C

100

-

MAITLAND

58

61

63

77

B

A

37.7

-

CHAIN OF LAKES

37

42

40

54

C

B

77.2

-

MEADOW WOODS

-

-

-

-

I

C

81.6

-

COLLEGE PARK

31

37

39

61

C

C

100

-

MEADOWBROOK

28

41

37

53

C

C

100

-

CONWAY

38

47

38

58

C

C

96.6

-

MEMORIAL

29

30

29

68

C

C

100

-

CORNER LAKE

49

51

56

65

B

C

86

-

OCOEE

41

42

50

63

C

B

85.1

-

DISCOVERY

52

65

61

79

B

A

43

-

ODYSSEY

-

-

-

-

I

B

71.5

-

FREEDOM

45

56

48

72

B

B

67.5

-

PIEDMONT LAKES

-

-

-

-

I

C

100

-

-

-

-

-

I

B

69.8

-

54

53

52

64

B

B

70.3

-

92

92

-

-

A

-

50

-

GOTHA

PINECREST COLLEGIATE ACADEMY (CHARTER)

HORIZON WEST

64

74

65

81

A

-

24.3

-

ROBERTO CLEMENTE

41

43

40

55

C

C

100

-

HOWARD

77

76

66

83

A

A

29.9

-

ROBINSWOOD

-

-

-

-

I

C

100

-

HUNTERS CREEK

60

74

57

75

A

A

37.4

-

SOUTH CREEK

49

50

43

70

C

B

70.6

-

62

68

62

90

A

A

29.1

-

-

-

-

-

I

A

63.6

-

-

-

-

-

I

C

100

-

SUNRIDGE

69

75

62

88

A

A

24.6

-

LAKE COMO

53

59

46

67

B

B

84.7

-

TIMBER SPRINGS

58

71

63

77

A

A

39.7

LAKE NONA

69

79

74

88

A

A

25.8

-

UNION PARK

31

36

28

54

C

D

100

-

45

48

37

70

C

C

77.4

-

WESTRIDGE

27

38

35

45

C

c

100

-

WOLF LAKE

50

61

58

68

B

B

70.8

-

GLENRIDGE

INNOVATION JUDSON B. WALKER

LAKEVIEW

SOUTHWEST

ORANGE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS APOPKA

45

26

58

71

C

B

66.8

98

LAKE NONA

67

49

72

77

A

A

29.7

100

COLONIAL

35

18

51

65

C

B

96.6

99

LEGACY (CHARTER)

63

53

79

53

B

B

0

100

CORNERSTONE CHARTER ACADEMY

61

52

79

75

B

A

34.3

99

MAYNARD EVANS

27

20

45

58

C

C

98

100

CYPRESS CREEK

41

23

53

61

C

B

68.9

99

OAK RIDGE

28

19

49

55

C

B

98

100

DR. PHILLIPS

44

23

51

66

C

B

68.7

98

OCOEE

39

35

64

76

B

C

80.1

99

EAST RIVER

43

33

59

69

B

B

71.3

99

OLYMPIA

52

26

61

76

B

A

39.4

98

EDGEWATER

44

17

54

61

C

B

81.8

99

TIMBER CREEK

68

52

80

86

A

A

25.9

99

FREEDOM

52

39

54

71

B

B

43.4

100

UNIVERSITY

49

34

62

80

B

A

70.2

98

HORIZON

65

52

77

75

B

-

18.5

-

INNOVATION MONTESSORI (CHARTER) JONES LAKE BUENA VISTA

WEKIVA

-

-

-

-

I

C

95.8

-

WEST ORANGE

61

35

70

76

B

B

29.9

97

56

46

72

81

B

A

32.7

-

WILLIAM R. BOONE

59

39

68

76

B

A

37.8

98

-

-

-

-

I

C

-

100

WINDERMERE

66

52

74

68

A

B

19.5

98

48

29

54

71

C

-

38.7

-

WINTER PARK

64

47

75

81

A

A

30.4

99

INNOVATION MONTESSORI OCOEE (K-8 CHARTER)

-

-

-

-

I

A

21

LAKE EOLA (K-8 CHARTER)

-

-

-

-

I

A

0

-

LEGENDS ACADEMY K-8 (CHARTER)

39

46

23

65

C

C

100

-

OCPS ACADEMIC CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE (PK-8) ORANGE COUNTY PREPARATORY ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER)

23

21

19

47

C

C

100

-

40

31

18

76

D

C

95.8

-

-

-

-

-

I

A

0

-

ORANGE COUNTY COMBINED SCHOOLS ARBOR RIDGE (K-8)

67

78

66

82

A

A

64.9

-

BLANKNER (K-8)

72

77

75

75

A

A

32.5

-

BRIDGEPREP (K-8 CHARTER)

31

22

18

51

C

D

100

-

CENTRAL FLORIDA LEADERSHIP ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER) CORNERSTONE ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER)

33

29

37

82

C

B

43.9

93

67

71

70

81

A

A

32.7

-

HOPE (K-8 CHARTER)

74

78

59

78

B

A

0

-

54

H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

ORANGE VIRTUAL (FRANCHISE)

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

School Grade 2022

School Grade 2019

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

Graduation Rate 2020-21

Graduation Rate 2020-21

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

School Grade 2019

School Grade 2022

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

47

42

39

53

C

B

59.7

-

ORANGE COUNTY COMBINED SCHOOLS -

34.2

99

PASSPORT (K-8 CHARTER)

49

40

28

73

C

C

100

-

PERSHING (K-8)

56

56

55

78

B

C

63.1

-

36

38

32

67

C

C

100

-

WINDY RIDGE (K-8 CHARTER)

66.2

-

A

52

-

70

71

82

A

A

40.6

-

62

70

71

82

A

A

40.6

-

Graduation Rate 2020-21

75.6

C

A

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

A

C

79

School Grade 2019

A

64

School Grade 2022

96

62

34 54

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

77

WEDGEFIELD SCHOOL (K-8)

34 60

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

84

35 56

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

77

RENAISSANCE AT CROWN POINT (K-8 CHARTER) RENAISSANCE AT GOLDENROD (K-8 CHARTER) RENAISSANCE AT HUNTER’S CREEK (K-8 CHARTER)

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

PINECREST PREPARATORY ( K-8 CHARTER) RENAISSANCE AT CHICKASAW TRAIL (K-8 CHARTER)

Graduation Rate 2020-21

22

A

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

A

A

School Grade 2019

A

90

School Grade 2022

98

80

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

89

84

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

95

82

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

96

ORLANDO SCIENCE (6-12 CHARTER)

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

ORLANDO GIFTED ACADEMY (2-6)

-

-

-

-

I

D

100

-

JESSE KEEN

22

26

28

-

D

C

100

-

ALTURAS

45

54

39

-

C

B

100

-

JOHN SNIVELY

46

55

43

-

C

D

100

-

AUBURNDALE CENTRAL

39

33

22

-

D

C

100

-

KATHLEEN

39

30

34

-

D

C

100

-

BARTOW ACADEMY

73

61

57

-

B

B

51.2

-

LAKE ALFRED

47

54

41

-

B

B

96.2

-

BELLA CITTA

47

49

37

C

-

77.6

-

LAKE SHIPP

40

36

17

-

D

C

100

-

BERKLEY (CHARTER)

72

80

52

-

A

A

29.3

-

54

51

45

-

B

C

100

-

87

81

53

-

A

A

3.5

-

BETHUNE ACADEMY

LAKELAND MONTESSORI SCHOOL HOUSE (CHARTER)

CARLTON PALMORE

45

52

46

-

C

B

100

-

-

-

-

-

I

D

100

-

CHAIN OF LAKES

58

62

39

-

C

A

73.8

-

LENA VISTA

42

39

35

-

C

C

100

-

CLARENCE BOSWELL

39

53

25

-

C

B

100

-

LEWIS ANNA WOODBURY

42

39

26

-

C

C

100

-

CLEVELAND COURT

72

83

68

-

A

A

81.7

-

LINCOLN AVENUE ACADEMY

86

83

89

-

A

A

40.7

-

LOUGHMAN OAKS

COMBEE ACADEMY OF DESIGN & ENGINEERING

44

35

26

-

D

C

75.9

-

44

47

44

-

C

C

100

-

MCKEEL CENTRAL ACADEMY K-6

78

85

78

-

A

A

36.6

-

CRYSTAL LAKE

26

28

29

-

D

D

100

-

MEDULLA

43

50

49

-

C

B

100

-

DALE R. FAIR BABSON PARK (CHARTER)

61

69

63

-

B

A

68.2

-

NORTH LAKELAND

37

33

36

-

C

C

100

-

OSCAR J. POPE

33

33

32

-

C

D

100

-

DAVENPORT

38

36

22

-

D

-

100

-

PALMETTO

33

24

28

-

D

D

100

-

DIXIELAND

28

50

25

-

C

D

100

-

PHILIP O’BRIEN

33

38

23

-

C

D

100

-

DR. N.E. ROBERTS

41

49

40

-

C

C

100

-

PINEWOOD

46

50

26

-

C

B

100

-

DUNDEE ACADEMY

57

55

33

-

C

B

91.8

-

POLK AVENUE (CHARTER)

34

35

36

-

D

B

100

-

EAGLE LAKE

36

45

31

-

D

C

100

-

POLK CITY

43

43

38

-

C

C

100

-

EASTSIDE

37

45

29

-

C

D

100

-

PURCELL

37

44

39

-

C

D

100

-

EDGAR L. PADGETT

41

46

29

-

C

C

100

-

R. BRUCE WAGNER

48

51

40

-

C

C

92.3

-

ELBERT

30

21

16

-

F

C

100

-

R. CLEM CHURCHWELL

48

54

34

-

C

B

96.4

-

FLORAL AVENUE

44

49

41

-

C

C

100

-

SANDHILL

37

33

32

-

C

C

100

-

FRANK E. BRIGHAM ACADEMY

72

74

62

-

B

A

62.9

-

SCOTT LAKE

56

69

55

-

B

B

72.2

-

FRED G. GARNER

32

36

29

-

C

D

100

-

SLEEPY HILL

44

47

40

-

C

B

100

-

FROSTPROOF BEN HILL GRIFFIN JR.

41

41

34

-

C

D

100

-

SOCRUM

36

36

26

-

D

C

100

-

GARDEN GROVE

42

49

36

-

C

C

89.6

-

72

76

53

-

B

A

30.6

-

GRIFFIN

39

42

39

-

C

D

100

-

SOUTH MCKEEL ACADEMY K-7 (CHARTER)

HARTRIDGE ACADEMY (CHARTER)

89

91

63

-

A

A

74.9

-

SOUTHWEST

43

60

60

-

B

B

100

-

HIGHLAND CITY

48

60

61

-

C

A

91.2

-

SPESSARD L. HOLLAND

55

54

45

-

C

C

87.4

-

HIGHLANDS GROVE

64

77

63

-

A

B

69.8

-

SPOOK HILL

31

26

28

-

D

D

100

-

HILLCREST (CHARTER)

57

68

39

-

B

B

98.1

-

VALLEYVIEW

74

75

67

-

A

A

57.1

-

HORIZONS

41

36

26

-

C

C

86

-

WAHNETA

33

46

24

-

C

C

100

-

INWOOD

33

33

44

-

D

D

100

-

WALTER CALDWELL

39

37

34

-

C

C

100

-

JAMES E. STEPHENS

24

25

35

-

D

D

100

-

WENDELL WATSON

51

50

48

-

C

B

78.9

-

JAMES W. SIKES

54

55

41

-

B

B

71.5

-

WILLOW OAK SCHOOL

44

49

39

-

C

-

100

-

JANIE HOWARD WILSON (CHARTER)

32

38

25

-

D

C

100

-

WINSTON ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

74

74

59

-

A

B

75.8

-

POLK COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS ALTA VISTA

LAUREL

SUMMER 2022

55

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

School Grade 2022

School Grade 2019

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

Graduation Rate 2020-21

98.3

-

LAKE ALFRED POLYTECH ACADEMY

42

47

49

61

C

C

95

-

A

33.7

-

LAKE GIBSON

36

35

33

56

D

C

88.9

-

BOK ACADEMY (CHARTER)

52

52

44

82

B

A

61.8

-

LAKE MARION CREEK

27

22

16

45

D

C

100

-

CRYSTAL LAKE

29

30

32

52

C

C

100

-

LAKELAND HIGHLANDS

49

60

52

82

B

B

62.5

-

DANIEL JENKINS ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGY

44

43

36

74

C

B

93.9

-

LAKELAND MONTESSORI (CHARTER)

87

83

-

-

A

A

15.4

-

DENISON

27

31

28

61

C

D

100

-

LAWTON CHILES MIDDLE ACADEMY

71

68

66

80

A

A

45.3

-

DISCOVERY ACADEMY OF LAKE ALFRED (CHARTER)

46

47

35

74

C

B

74.8

-

MCLAUGHLIN FINE ARTS ACADEMY

38

37

28

60

C

D

100

-

58

45

73

B

A

89.9

-

39

35

31

71

C

C

98.9

-

DUNDEE RIDGE

51

MULBERRY SHELLEY S. BOONE

EDWARD W. BOK ACADEMY NORTH (CHARTER)

25

30

22

52

C

C

98.7

-

53

51

36

70

C

C

57.5

-

SLEEPY HILL

32

32

34

75

C

C

100

-

JERE L. STAMBAUGH

24

25

27

59

C

C

100

-

SOUTHWEST

35

29

29

59

C

C

100

-

JEWETT ACADEMY MAGNET

56

42

49

79

C

B

72.5

-

UNION ACADEMY

68

64

68

81

A

A

53.9

-

KATHLEEN

30

35

32

53

C

C

100

-

WESTWOOD

25

22

19

72

D

C

100

-

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

C

A

Graduation Rate 2020-21

C

81

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

61

76

School Grade 2019

36

78

School Grade 2022

36

70

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

33

BERKLEY ACCELERATED (CHARTER)

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

BARTOW

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

POLK COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOLS

POLK COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS AUBURNDALE

34

29

43

44

C

C

84.5

90

LAKE WALES (CHARTER)

48

44

59

61

C

B

58.2

91

BARTOW

48

32

57

63

C

B

69.9

96

LAKELAND

54

33

64

71

B

B

66.5

88

-

-

-

-

A

A

0

100

MULBERRY

37

22

49

67

C

C

92.3

91

POLK PRE-COLLEGIATE ACADEMY (CHARTER)

76

68

84

56

A

A

27

-

POLK STATE COLLEGE COLLEGIATE (CHARTER)

-

-

-

-

A

A

0

100

CHAIN OF LAKES COLLEGIATE (CHARTER) DAVENPORT

40

DISCOVERY (CHARTER)

26

51

GEORGE W. JENKINS

50

35

53

39

HAINES CITY

34

KATHLEEN

31

LAKE GIBSON LAKE REGION

42

D

-

72.7

-

57

67

C

C

69.2

97

61

62

B

B

59.1

97

20

49

56

C

C

92.9

86

RIDGE COMMUNITY

38

22

57

57

C

C

83.2

90

17

54

47

C

C

92.7

89

TENOROC

40

24

54

51

C

C

79.5

95

-

-

-

-

I

D

100

-

26

13

33

32

D

C

95.5

89

WINTER HAVEN

-

-

-

-

I

C

81.2

-

MCKEEL ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGY (7-12 CHARTER) MI ESCUELA MONTESSORI (K-8 CHARTER) NAVIGATOR ACADEMY OF LEADERSHIP DAVENPORT (K-8 CHARTER)

73

75

77

85

A

A

35.1

100

POLK COUNTY COMBINED SCHOOLS CITRUS RIDGE - A CIVIC ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER) CYPRESS JUNCTION MONTESSORI (K-8 CHARTER) DAVENPORT SCHOOL OF THE ARTS (K-8 CHARTER)

38

FORT MEADE (6-12)

38

28

77

C

C

88.4

-

73

65

35

88

B

C

0

-

71

70

59

95

A

A

62.7

-

41

41

36

56

C

C

100

97

POLK VIRTUAL RIDGEVIEW GLOBAL STUDIES ACADEMY K-8 (CHARTER) ROCHELLE SCHOOL OF THE ARTS K-8 (CHARTER) ROSABELLE W. BLAKE ACADEMY K-8 (CHARTER)

FROSTPROOF (6-12)

37

35

40

55

C

B

96.2

90

JEWETT SCHOOL OF THE ARTS (K-8 CHARTER) MAGNOLIA MONTESSORI ACADEMY (K-7 CHARTER)

51

46

41

70

C

B

72.2

-

87

75

38

92

A

A

5.5

-

55

37

-

-

C

-

40

-

46

44

33

60

C

-

22.9

-

-

-

-

-

I

-

0

-

75

68

64

87

A

A

88.4

-

58

58

51

90

B

B

75.9

-

45

38

35

85

C

B

100

-

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56

H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

School Grade 2022

School Grade 2019

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

Graduation Rate 2020-21

C

74.3

-

MASCOTTE (CHARTER)

45

43

35

-

D

C

100

-

C

B

96.3

-

PINE RIDGE

54

58

53

-

C

A

61

-

BEVERLY SHORES

36

40

36

-

C

F

100

-

ROUND LAKE (CHARTER)

72

81

62

87

A

A

53.1

-

CLERMONT

40

40

33

-

C

C

100

-

SAWGRASS BAY

44

46

47

-

C

C

82.3

-

CYPRESS RIDGE

80

80

77

-

A

A

32

-

SEMINOLE SPRINGS

56

61

47

-

B

B

92.2

-

EUSTIS

41

52

46

-

C

C

100

-

SORRENTO

53

58

46

-

C

C

80.8

-

EUSTIS HEIGHTS

42

48

41

-

C

C

100

-

TAVARES

46

49

42

-

C

C

100

-

FRUITLAND PARK

44

48

43

-

C

C

100

-

60

61

53

-

B

A

100

-

GRASSY LAKE

65

60

50

-

C

A

54.3

-

THE VILLAGES ELEMENTARY OF LADY LAKE TREADWAY

24

31

-

D

C

100

-

58

46

-

C

C

100

-

GROVELAND

28

53

TRIANGLE

41

24

-

C

D

100

-

43

33

-

D

B

100

-

LEESBURG

31

37

UMATILLA

65

51

-

C

A

53.9

-

61

52

-

B

B

89.2

-

LOST LAKE

66

55

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Graduation Rate 2020-21

B

-

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

-

49

School Grade 2019

57

50

School Grade 2022

68

53

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

57

ASTATULA

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

ALTOONA (CHARTER)

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LAKE COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

LAKE COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOLS CARVER

39

42

45

61

C

C

100

-

MT. DORA

44

49

47

64

C

C

82.3

-

CLERMONT

48

49

52

62

B

B

78.2

-

OAK PARK

33

31

36

54

C

C

100

-

EAST RIDGE

60

67

61

75

A

A

57.7

-

TAVARES

39

44

35

72

C

B

97.7

-

EUSTIS

40

48

33

58

C

C

94.2

-

UMATILLA

44

56

50

68

C

B

93.6

-

GRAY

40

41

44

64

C

B

80.2

-

WINDY HILL

54

56

58

72

B

B

61.8

-

PINECREST LAKES PREP (CHARTER)

75

76

89

-

A

-

27.1

-

40

31

51

62

C

C

66.9

96

LAKE COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS EAST RIDGE

49

38

69

73

B

B

54.6

98

EUSTIS

42

53

54

64

C

C

71.6

96

LAKE MINNEOLA

52

47

67

65

B

A

47.6

98

SOUTH LAKE

LEESBURG

35

24

46

47

C

C

97.8

87

TAVARES

-

-

-

-

I

C

74.1

-

MT. DORA

48

40

53

72

B

C

63.1

97

UMATILLA

40

45

76

59

B

C

87.7

89

55

51

49

86

B

-

56.2

-

74

68

56

93

A

-

34.8

-

82

84

69

99

A

A

31.1

-

46

47

44

81

C

B

100

-

LAKE COUNTY COMBINED SCHOOLS IMAGINE SCHOOLS AT SOUTH LAKE (K-8 CHARTER)

77

87

74

96

A

LAKE POINTE ACADEMY (K-8)

43

40

28

69

C

-

-

-

-

I

65

66

64

90

A

B

LAKE VIRTUAL (FRANCHISE) MINNEOLA CONVERSION (PK-8 CHARTER)

19

-

-

57

-

B

28.7

-

PINECREST ACADEMY FOUR CORNERS (K-8 CHARTER) PINECREST ACADEMY TAVARES (K-8 CHARTER) PINECREST LAKES ACADEMY (K-8 CHARTER)

56.2

-

SPRING CREEK (PK-8 CHARTER)

A

SUMMER 2022

57

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

Graduation Rate 2020-21

-

OSTEEN

56

53

74

-

B

B

69.3

-

83.4

-

PALM TERRACE

34

40

33

-

C

D

92.2

-

CHAMPION

41

47

55

-

C

D

82.4

-

PATHWAYS

67

65

65

-

B

A

49.6

-

CHISHOLM

67

73

72

-

A

C

57.2

-

PIERSON

42

41

56

-

D

C

82.8

-

CITRUS GROVE

60

57

66

-

B

B

70.2

-

PINE TRAIL

70

74

71

-

A

A

52.7

-

CORONADO BEACH

76

77

84

-

A

A

34.5

-

PORT ORANGE

58

63

62

-

B

B

75.2

-

CYPRESS CREEK

76

76

73

-

A

B

41.2

-

PRIDE

45

39

51

-

D

C

75.8

-

DEBARY

64

69

74

-

B

A

42.5

-

R. J. LONGSTREET

55

54

74

-

A

C

73.6

-

DELTONA LAKES

52

54

47

-

C

C

77.9

-

READ-PATTILLO

58

59

65

-

B

B

68.5

-

DISCOVERY

41

42

53

-

C

C

85.8

-

51

55

42

-

C

A

7.1

-

EDGEWATER

57

66

71

-

B

C

77.6

-

READING EDGE ACADEMY (CHARTER)

EDITH I. STARKE

28

54

47

-

C

C

95.2

-

SAMSULA ACADEMY (CHARTER)

56

60

61

-

B

C

4.5

-

ENTERPRISE

46

52

47

-

C

B

79.6

-

SOUTH DAYTONA

40

43

40

-

C

D

85.9

-

FOREST LAKE

57

54

60

-

B

B

74.1

-

SPIRIT

49

49

64

-

C

C

80.3

-

FREEDOM

56

57

62

-

C

B

56.3

-

SPRUCE CREEK

61

71

65

-

B

B

65.6

-

FRIENDSHIP

41

38

49

-

C

C

84

-

SUGAR MILL

60

59

59

-

B

B

76.2

-

GEORGE W. MARKS

54

53

54

-

B

C

74.4

-

SUNRISE

35

28

44

-

D

C

78

-

HORIZON

61

63

57

-

B

B

64.1

-

SWEETWATER

79

85

89

-

A

A

42.7

-

INDIAN RIVER

56

61

68

-

C

B

74.1

-

TIMBERCREST

59

66

61

-

B

B

71.9

-

LOUISE S. MCINNIS

39

47

56

-

C

C

84.1

-

TOMOKA

63

66

56

-

B

A

55.2

-

MANATEE COVE

50

50

54

-

C

C

73

-

TURIE T. SMALL

27

28

34

-

D

C

94.8

-

ORANGE CITY

41

34

37

-

D

C

82.1

-

VOLUSIA PINES

51

52

64

-

B

C

76.9

-

WESTSIDE

81

77

-

A

B

70

-

32

32

-

C

D

91

-

ORMOND BEACH

71

32

WOODWARD AVENUE

46

50

54

-

C

C

77

-

36

42

55

62

C

B

76

-

-

-

-

-

I

C

62.7

-

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

School Grade 2019

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

78.4

C

School Grade 2022

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

C

D

Graduation Rate 2020-21

I

-

Percent of Economically Disadvantaged Students

-

40

School Grade 2019

-

32

School Grade 2022

-

35

Social Studies Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

-

BLUE LAKE

Science Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

BEACHSIDE

English Language Arts Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

Mathematics Achievement % Satisfactory or Higher

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

VOLUSIA COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

VOLUSIA COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOLS CAMPBELL

29

30

29

50

D

C

91

-

HERITAGE

CREEKSIDE

62

67

71

77

B

A

42

-

NEW SMYRNA BEACH

DAVID C. HINSON SR.

48

49

55

74

C

B

59.9

-

ORMOND BEACH

54

61

63

74

B

B

57.6

-

DELAND

38

38

43

59

C

C

69.8

-

RIVER SPRINGS

48

45

50

69

C

B

59.4

-

DELTONA

38

38

46

49

C

C

78

-

SILVER SANDS

52

55

60

77

B

A

67.6

-

GALAXY

39

33

51

59

C

B

74.8

-

SOUTHWESTERN

45

45

46

74

C

C

74.3

-

VOLUSIA COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS 46

27

65

66

C

B

61.4

92

PINE RIDGE

-

-

-

-

I

C

69.7

-

DELAND

-

-

-

-

I

C

56.7

-

SEABREEZE

51

32

66

61

C

B

45.7

92

DELTONA

49

39

70

60

B

B

68.6

97

SPRUCE CREEK

58

33

75

67

B

B

41.8

93

MAINLAND

36

24

55

61

C

C

71.3

88

UNIVERSITY

45

28

63

65

C

B

58.6

92

NEW SMYRNA BEACH

51

38

75

67

B

B

48.5

96

ATLANTIC

VOLUSIA COUNTY COMBINED SCHOOLS BURNS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL (K-8 CHARTER)

69

68

71

95

A

A

HOLLY HILL (K-12)

29

30

44

58

C

C

IVY HAWN SCHOOL OF THE ARTS (K-8 CHARTER)

70

66

71

84

A

A

-

T. DEWITT TAYLOR (6-12)

34

33

40

53

C

C

74.4

91

87.5

-

VOLUSIA VIRTUAL (FRANCHISE)

-

-

-

-

I

B

36.2

-

37.5

-

VOLUSIA VIRTUAL (PROGRAM DISTRICT PROVIDED)

-

-

-

-

I

-

42.9

-

58.4

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H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

TrustcoBank.com

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ORANGE COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

TRUSTCO BANK Your Home Town Bank R

On the following pages you’ll find some of our favorite Central Florida new-home communities in Orange County. In addition to addresses, prices, product types, amenities and builders, the listings also show designated public schools. Elementary schools are first, middle schools are second and high schools are third. In parentheses alongside the schools are the 2022 school grades, which are based on Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) scores, among other factors. School grades were not given for the 2020-21 or 2021-22 school years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bridle Path 5486 Palomino Place, Apopka, FL 32712 • drhorton.com

Schools/Grades: Zellwood (C); Wolf Lake (B); Apopka (C) Amenities: Walking trails, pool and cabana Builder: D.R. Horton Homes, 321-733-2080 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the high $400s Notes: Easy access to S.R. 429 (the Western Beltway); nearby shopping, dining and entertainment.

Eagle Creek 10350 Emerson Lake Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32832 • joneshomesusa.com

Schools/Grades: Eagle Creek (A); Lake Nona (A); Lake Nona (A) Amenities: Gated community; golf course, tennis courts, pool, health/fitness center, clubhouse Builder: Jones Homes USA, 407-636-9261 Products/Prices: Single-family and townhomes, call for pricing details Notes: Village Center with an elegant hotel planned; near Lake Nona’s Medical City and Orlando International Airport; 40 minutes to the Atlantic beaches.

Fire Creek 10109 Brocksport Circle, Gotha, FL 34734 * taylormorrison.com

Schools/Grades: Thornebrook (A); Gotha (B); Olympia (B) Amenities: Gated community, tot lot Builder: Taylor Morrison Homes, 407-756-5025 Products/Prices: Single-family, call for pricing Notes: Intimate community of 42 oversized homesites offering easy access to S.R. 429 (the Western Beltway), I-4, theme parks, entertainment and shopping.

Gatherings of Lake Nona 7573 Laureate Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32837 • beazer.com

Schools/Grades: Eagle Creek (A); Lake Nona (A); Lake Nona (A) Amenities: Internet and cable included; each home has a private balcony and a one-car garage Builder: Beazer Homes, 321-445-5050 Products/Prices: Condominiums, from the $400s Notes: 55-plus active-adult community featuring new condos with elevator access; residents enjoy maintenance-free living with easy access to Lake Nona’s Medical City and S.R. 417 (the Central Florida GreeneWay).

Laureate Park at Lake Nona South Narcoossee Road, Orlando, FL 32827 • lakenona.com/live/neighborhoods/laureate-park

Schools/Grades: Eagle Creek (A); Lake Nona (A); Lake Nona (A) Amenities: Pool, bike trails, dog park, pocket parks, fitness center, community garden Builders: Ashton Woods Homes, 407-543-6451; Cardel Homes, 813-612-8001; Craft Homes, 407-443-0528; David Weekley Homes, 407-865-8296; Dream Finders Homes, 904-738-0165; Pulte Homes, 866-300-4793; Taylor Morrison Homes, 407-671-8838 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $400s to over $1 million; townhomes, from the low $400s Notes: Traditional neighborhood development adjacent to Lake Nona’s Medical City; variety of architectural styles available; planned Village Center; streets named for Nobel Prize winners.

60

H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

ORANGE COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

TRUSTCO BANK Your Home Town Bank R

Oakland Park 15211 East Oakland Avenue, Winter Garden, FL 34787 • liveatoaklandpark.com

Schools/Grades: Tildenville (A); Lakeview (C); West Orange (B) Amenities: Pool and recreation area, pocket parks, West Orange Trail runs through community, charming streetscape with sidewalks Builders: Brierhill Homes, 407-363-6913; David Weekley Homes, 407-865-8295; J&J Building, 407-476-7520; RCB Homes, 407-876-0729; Rockwell Homes, 407-890-0425 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the high $400s Notes: Located just minutes from historic downtown Winter Garden on the shores of Lake Apopka; certified green homes in a traditionally styled neighborhood.

Phillips Grove 7965 Wandering Way, Doctor Phillips, FL 32836 • pulte.com

Schools/Grades: Sandlake (A); Southwest (I); Dr. Phillips (C).

Amenities: Gated community, lawn care included, outside summer kitchen, pool and cabana, sports courts.

Builder: Pulte Homes, 407-449-8039 Product/Prices: Single-family, from the high $800s Notes: Located within minutes of I-4; near Central Florida’s “Restaurant Row;” convenient to schools and shopping; limited number of lakefront homesites on the Butler Chain of Lakes available.

Pinewood Reserve 5973 Wooden Pine Drive, Orlando, FL 32829 • pulte.com

Schools/Grades: Hidden Oaks (B); Odyssey (I); Colonial (C) Amenities: Pool and cabana, playground, dog park Builder: Pulte Homes, 407-845-9049 Product/Price: Single-family and townhomes, from the low $400s Notes: Easy access to S.R. 417 (the Central Florida GreeneWay) offers easy access to top shopping and dining areas such as the Waterford Lakes Town Center and the Lake Nona Town Center.

San Sebastian Reserve 2100 Emerald Springs Drive, Apopka, FL 32712 • khov.com

Schools/Grades: Rock Springs (C); Apopka (I); Apopka (C) Amenities: Gated community, resort-style pool, cabana, playground, dog park Builder: K. Hovnanian Homes, 321-263-2644 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the $500s Notes: Close to S.R. 429 (the Western Beltway), 414 (the Apopka Expressway) and Florida’s Turnpike.

Sunset Preserve 4125 Sunset Preserve Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32820 • pulte.com

Schools/Grades: East Lake (C); Corner Lake (B); East River (B) Amenities: Gated community, private boat ramp, lakefront pavilion, children’s playground Builder: Pulte Homes, 407-676-7843 Product/Prices: Single-family, from the low $600s Notes: Tucked among the trees off of Lake Pickett in East Orlando; features a private community boat ramp, a lakefront open-air pavilion and a children’s playground; located near S.R. 417 (the Central Florida GreeneWay) and S.R. 408 (the East-West Expressway).

SUMMER 2022

61

SPONSORED BY

TRUSTCO BANK Your Home Town Bank R

ORANGE COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

The Brix at The Packing District 3025 Edgewater Drive, Orlando, FL 32804 • tollbrothers.com

Schools/Grades: Lake Silver (D); College Park (C); Edgewater (C) Amenities: Bike lane leading directly into College Park; food hall and beer garden, futuristic regional park with a pond overlook, 40-acre urban farm, sports fields, pavilion, entertainment stage, scenic walking and jogging trails, and more.

Builder: Toll Brothers, 877-431-0444 Product/Prices: Townhomes, from the high $500s Notes: Near downtown Orlando and College Park; an exclusive community featuring 135 townhomes; home designs will feature urban, transitional and industrial-inspired architecture.

The Oaks at Kelly Park 2424 Park Ridge Street, Apopka, FL 32712 • tollbrothers.com

Schools/Grades: Zellwood (C); Wolf Lake (B); Apopka (C) Amenities: Future swimming pool, cabana, tot lot, two parks with walking paths Builder: Toll Brothers, 407-753-6191 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $400s Notes: Located less than a mile from S.R. 429 (the Western Beltway) and near I-4 and major roadways, residents have easy access to schools, entertainment, shopping and dining, and neighboring cities; nearby outdoor recreation includes hiking, biking and swimming in a natural spring at Wekiwa Springs State Park.

Waterleigh 10482 Atwater Bay Drive, Winter Garden, FL 34787 • drhorton.com

Schools/Grades: Water Spring (A); Bridgewater (A); Windermere (A) Amenities: Waterfront or water access; walking and nature trails; exercise and fitness center; two resort-style amenity centers; lakes, ponds and swimming pools; tot lots and sports fields; beach volleyball and minigolf; a community garden Builders: D.R. Horton Homes, 407-395-9707; Emerald Homes, 407-395-9707 Product/Prices: Single-family, from the $400s Notes: Located in the Horizon West area with 1,400-plus acres encompassing more than a dozen lakes and clear water ponds; near shopping, dining, major attractions and top-notch medical facilities; served by excellent schools.

Waverly Walk 9119 Waverly Walk Drive, Orlando, FL. 32817 • ashtonwoods.com

Schools/Grades: Riverdale (C); Corner Lake (B); University (B) Amenities: Walking Trails, community playground Builder: Ashton Woods Homes, 407-787-9995 Product/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $600s Notes: Close to the University of Central Florida and S.R. 417 (the Central Florida GreeneWay); four parks and vibrant dining and shopping scene nearby.

Westhaven at Ovation 8818 Lakeshore Pointe Drive, Winter Garden, FL 34787 • tollbrothers.com

Schools/Grades: Panther Lake (NA); Water Springs (A); Horizon (B) Amenities: Community pool and cabana, wetlands and water features Builder: Toll Brothers, 877-431-0444 Product/Prices: Townhomes, from the mid $400s Notes: Nestled in a natural setting; embodies tranquility with a picturesque location just minutes to shopping, dining, entertainment and schools.

62

H O M E B U Y E R // C E N T R A L F L O R I D A E D I T I O N

ORANGE COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

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Westridge Park 11142 Amber Ridge Drive, Zellwood, FL 32798 • drhorton.com

Schools/Grades: Zellwood (C); Wolf Lake (B); Apopka (C) Amenities: Park, tot lot, pool and cabana Builders: D.R. Horton Homes, 877-415-0030 Product/Price: Single-family, from the $400s Notes: Great location with easy access to S.R. 429 (the Western Beltway); Zellwood Station Golf Club and the West Orange Trail are nearby as are shopping and entertainment venues.

Winding Bay 15131 Mayberry Drive, Winter Garden, FL 34787 • rockwell-homes.com

Schools/Grades: Water Spring (A); Bridgewater (A); Windermere (A) Amenities: Pool and cabana with splash pad, playground, dog park, activity field Builders: Rockwell Homes, 407-890-0425 Product/Price: Single-family, from the mid $500s Notes: Just minutes from S.R. 429 (the Western Beltway), which provides easy access to all major highways; 30 minutes from Orlando International Airport and Downtown Orlando and just 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, the Orlando Health Horizon West Hospital and the Horizon West Town Center.

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“#1 K–12 Private School” by Niche.com | www.lhps.org • 407-206-1900 ext. 1

SUMMER 2022

63

SEMINOLE COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

TRUSTCO BANK Your Home Town Bank R

On the following pages you’ll find some of our favorite Central Florida new-home communities in Seminole County. In addition to addresses, prices, product types, amenities and builders, the listings also show designated public schools. Elementary schools are first, middle schools are second and high schools are third. In parentheses alongside the schools are the 2022 school grades, which are based on Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) scores, among other factors. School grades were not given for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Celery Oaks 2040 Celery Avenue, Sanford, FL 32771 • LandseaHomes.com

Schools/Grades: Hamilton (C); Markham Woods (B); Seminole (B) Amenities: Recreation area, dog park, green space Builders: Hanover Family Builders, 407-565-7450 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the high $300s Notes: Located less than a mile from the Downtown Sanford Historic District with its award-winning restaurants, boutique shops, eclectic art galleries, tree-lined streets, parks and nature trails as well as a spectacular marina with boating, fishing and dinner cruises.

Eastgrove 3230 Eastgrove Terrace, Sanford, FL 32771 • drhorton.com

Schools/Grades: Midway (B); Millennium (C); Seminole (B) Amenities: Gated community, pool and cabana, walking trails Builders: D.R. Horton Homes, 877-415-0030 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the low $400s Notes: Easy Access to I-4 and S.R. 417 (the Central Florida GreeneWay); convenient to Orlando International and Sanford International airports and nearby Lake Mary and Historic Downtown Sanford.

Monterey East Palmetto Ave, Longwood, FL 32750 • drhorton.com

Schools/Grades: Longwood (B); Milwee (B); Lyman (B) Amenities: Abundant water features Builders: D.R. Horton Homes, 877-415-0030 Products/Prices: Townhomes, call for pricing Notes: Walk to Longwood, SunRail station, close to heavily amenitized Reiter Park.

Grayson Square Jergo Road and Orava Lane, Winter Park, FL 32792 • pulte.com

Schools/Grades: Eastbrook (B); Tuskawilla (B); Lake Howell (I) Amenities: Abundant water features Builders: D.R. Horton Homes, 877-415-0030 Products/Prices: Townhomes, call for pricing Notes: Walk to Longwood, SunRail station, close to heavily amenitized Reiter Park.

Riverbend 4101 Silverstream Terrace, Sanford, FL 32771 • drhorton.com

FINAL OPPORTUNITY

Schools/Grades: Midway (B); Millennium (C); Seminole (B) Amenities: Pool and cabana, park Builders: D.R. Horton Homes, 407-878-2284 Product/Price: Single-family, from the high $300s Notes: Minutes to shopping and dining in downtown Winter Park, three miles to S.R. 417 (the Central Florida GreeneWay)

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SEMINOLE COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

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River’s Edge 1501 Missouri Avenue, Sanford, FL 32771 • mybellavista.com

Schools/Grades: Wilson (A); Sanford (A); Seminole (B) Amenities: Gated community, tot park, walking trail Builder: Bellavista Homes, 407-873-6316 Products/Prices: Townhomes, from the mid $300s Notes: Located in a highly rated Seminole County school district, this gated community is near major transportation arteries and the Seminole Towne Center, the Downtown Sanford Historic District, Lake Monroe and the Central Florida Zoo.

Riverside Oaks 3682 Arbordale Loop, Sanford, FL 32771 • tollbrothers.com

Schools/Grades: Hamilton (C); Millennium (C); Seminole (B) Amenities: Gated community, private residents’ clubhouse with a cabana and a swimming pool Builder: Toll Brothers, 407-605-6377 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the high $400s Notes: Located along the St. John’s River, close to golf courses, the Sanford Riverwalk and the Downtown Sanford Historic District; near regional universities and colleges, shopping and dining, beaches, and major highways, including I-4 and S.R. 417 (the Central Florida GreeneWay).

Veranda Pines Pine Avenue, Oviedo, FL 32765 • pulte.com

Schools/Grades: Lawton (A); Jackson Heights (A); Oviedo (A) Amenities: 22 homesites nestled in three cul-de-sacs Builder: Pulte Homes, 407-214-3011 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the mid- to high $700s Notes: Located just minutes from the Cross Seminole Trail and S.R. 417 (the Central Florida GreeneWay).

OSCEOLA COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

TRUSTCO BANK Your Home Town Bank R

On the following pages you’ll find some of our favorite Central Florida new-home communities in Osceola County. In addition to addresses, prices, product types, amenities and builders, the listings also show designated public schools. Elementary schools are first, middle schools are second and high schools are third. In parentheses alongside the schools are the 2022 school grades, which are based on Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) scores, among other factors. School grades were not given for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alexander Park 2652 Ham Brown Road, Kissimmee, FL 34746 • mybellavista.com

Schools/Grades: Sunrise (C); Horizon (C); Poinciana (C) Amenities: Community pool, cabana, tot park, recreation field Builder: Bellavista Homes, 407-873-6316 Products/Prices: Townhomes, new phase coming soon, call for pricing Notes: Intimate townhome community offering easy access to major roads and employment centers as well as shopping and dining.

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SUMMER 2022

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SPONSORED BY

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OSCEOLA COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

Bellalago 1520 Gateway Lane, Kissimmee, FL 34746 • taylormorrison.com

Schools/Grades: Bellalago Academy (K-8) (C); Liberty High (C) Amenities: Two 7,000-square-foot clubhouses, lifestyle center, multipool aquatic center, fitness center, water park and tot lot, tennis and basketball courts; nature and bike trails including a 1,300-foot lakefront boardwalk with gazebo; fishing pier and community boat ramp and lift Builder: Taylor Morrison Homes, 407-853-8598 Products/Prices: Single-family, call for pricing Notes: Village Shoppes at Bellalago, located just outside the community, encompasses shops, restaurants, banks and a Publix supermarket with a drive-through pharmacy.

Cypress Cay 4511 Cypress Cay Way, Kissimmee, Florida 34746 • centex.com

Schools/Grades: Flora Ridge (C); Kissimmee (C); Poinciana (C) Amenities: Community pool, playground, walking trail, half-court basketball Builder: Centex Homes, 407-863-6587 Products/Prices: Townhomes, from the mid $300s Notes: Located just minutes from The Loop and area attractions.

Cypress Hammock 1237 Regal King Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34758 • LandseaHomes.com

Schools/Grades: Reedy Creek (C); Horizon (C); Poinciana (C) Amenities: Clubhouse, pool, playground Builder: Landsea Homes, 407-305-3701 Products/Prices: Townhomes, from the high $300s; single-family, from the low $400s Notes: Located on Poinciana Boulevard within walking distance of the Kissimmee SunRail station; interest list now forming.

Glenwood 5354 Douglas Fir Drive, St. Cloud, FL 34771 • drhorton.com

FINAL OPPORTUNITY

Schools/Grades: Narcoossee (B); Narcoossee (B); Harmony (B) Amenities: Pool, walking trails Builder: D.R. Horton Homes, 407-850-5207 Product/Prices: Single-family, from the low $400s Notes: Located just off Florida’s Turnpike and near Lakeshore Park, with a beachfront playground, outdoor dining, a boat ramp and marina, picnic pavilions, a children’s splash pad and more; easy access to the Cocoa and Melbourne beaches, Orlando International Airport, Lake Nona’s Medical City, and regional attractions via S.R. 417 (the Central Florida GreeneWay) and S.R. 528 (the Beachline Expressway).

Hanover Lakes 3325 Hickory Tree Road, St. Cloud, FL 34772 • LandseaHomes.com

Schools/Grades: Hickory Tree (B); St. Cloud (B); Harmony (B) Amenities: Resort-style pool and splash pad; boat access to pristine chain of lakes; homesites with private docks available; nature park with dock and pavilion; low HOA dues Builder: Landsea Homes, 407-315-2628 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $400s Notes: Unique waterfront community on the Alligator Chain of Lakes.

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OSCEOLA COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

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Kindred 1508 Park Side Avenue, Kissimmee, FL 34744 • drhorton.com

Schools/Grades: Neptune (C); Neptune (B); Gateway (C) Amenities: Clubhouse, pool, cabana, tennis, trails, playground, pavilion picnic areas, dog park, beach volleyball court, soccer fields Builder: D.R. Horton Homes, 407-978-6035 Products/Prices: Townhomes, from the mid $300s; single-family, from the high $300s Notes: Located in the heart of Kissimmee, with direct access to Florida’s Turnpike, Osceola Parkway, I-4; Osceola County’s NeoCity, a master-planned tech center, is nearby.

Reedy Reserve Townhomes 3312 Reedy Glen Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34758 • taylormorrison.com

Schools/Grades: BellaLago Charter Academy K-8 (C); New Dimensions (A) Amenities: Pool and cabana, playground, dog park Builder: Taylor Morrison, 407-756-5025 Product/Price: Townhomes, call for pricing Notes: Featuring thoughtfully designed floorplans from Taylor Morrison’s Canvas Studio.

southern Pines 3921 Southern Vista Loop, St. Cloud, FL 34772 •taylormorrison.com

Schools/Grades: Michigan Avenue (C); Saint Cloud (B); Saint Cloud (B) Amenities: Community pool, cabana, tot lot, ponds and conservation areas Builder: Taylor Morrison Homes, 407-250-8109 Products/Prices: Single-family, call for pricing Notes: Located within the city of St. Cloud; easy access to Florida’s Turnpike as well as the employment and retail corridors of Narcoossee Road and U.S. 192.

split oak reserve Franklin Road and Leon Tyson Road, St. Cloud, FL 34771 • pulte.com

Schools/Grades: Narcoossee (B); Narcoossee (B); Harmony (B) Amenities: Resort-style pool, playground, walking trails Builder: Pulte Homes, 407-554-4438 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the $500s Notes: Located just 3 miles south of Lake Nona with no CDD; dining and shopping located off Narcoossee Road.

TOHOQUA 1706 Flourish Avenue, Kissimmee, FL 34744 • tohoqua.com

Schools/Grades: Neptune (C); Neptune (B); St. Cloud (B) Amenities: Resort-style pool, clubhouse and events room, fitness center, tennis courts, playground and 5 miles of community trails Builders: Lennar Homes, 866-495-4059; Pulte Homes, 407-550-5534; Pulte Active Adult, 407-554-53733 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $300s Notes: New amenities center now open; located adjacent to a 370-acre conservation area with trails to Lake Tohopekaliga; 5 minutes from Florida’s Turnpike and walking distance to schools; wide variety of home designs and prices.

SUMMER 2022

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LAKE COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

TRUSTCO BANK Your Home Town Bank R

On the following pages you’ll find some of our favorite Central Florida new-home communities in Lake County. In addition to addresses, prices, product types, amenities and builders, the listings also show designated public schools. Elementary schools are first, middle schools are second and high schools are third. In parentheses alongside the schools are the 2022 school grades, which are based on Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) scores, among other factors. School grades were not given for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ardmore Reserve 1312 Blarney Street, Minneola, FL 34715 • LandseaHomes.com

Schools/Grades: Grassy Lake (C); East Ridge (A); Lake Minneola (B) Builder: Landsea Homes, 407-965-2274 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the low $400s Notes: Located in the rolling hills of Minneola, close to elementary and high schools and just minutes from shopping, restaurants, and indoor and outdoor entertainment options, including the Minneola Athletic Complex and the South Lake Trail.

Bella Collina 16690 Cavallo Drive, Montverde, FL 34756 • bellacollina.com

Schools/Grades: Grassy Lake (C); East Ridge (A); Lake Minneola (B) Amenities: Nick Faldo-designed championship golf course, tennis club, fine-dining clubhouse, community pool, full-service spa and fitness center.

Builders: Dream Finders Homes, 888-208-0483; Vogel Building Group, 407-230-4660; Primo Homes, 407-632-4501; J. Drewes Construction, 407-744-3133 Products/Prices: Condominiums, from the $300s; single-family, from the $500s to over $1 million Notes: Near Florida’s Turnpike, S.R. 429 (the Western Beltway) and S.R. 528 (the Beachline Expressway).

Crestview 2691 Ridgetop Lane, Clermont, Florida FL 34711 • taylormorrison.com

Schools/Grades: Lost Lake (C); Windy Hill (B); Eastridge (B) Amenities: Planned amenities include gated entrance, resort-style pool, splashpad and cabana as well as tots lots and pocket parks.

Builder: Taylor Morrison Homes, 407-756-5025 Product/Prices: Single-family, call for pricing Notes: Gated community tucked in the rolling hills of Lake County; offers easy access to commuter routes and major job centers like Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Maitland Center and downtown Orlando.

Hills of Minneola 2394 Gold Dust Drive, Minneola, FL • ashtonwoods.com

Schools/Grades: Astatula (C); East Ridge (A); Lake Minneola (B) Amenities: Tot lot, dog park, 60-acre green space.

Builder: Ashton Woods Homes, 407-787-9995 Product/Prices: Single-family, from the $400s Notes: Located just off Lake Apopka; near Winter Garden as well as Lake Louisa State Park.

Sawgrass Bay

FINAL OPPORTUNITY

Sawgrass Bay Boulevard, Clermont, FL 34714 • homedynamics.com

Schools/Grades: Sawgrass Bay (C); Windy Hill (B); East Ridge (B) Amenities: Nature trails, playground, pool and cabana, conservation areas Builder: Home Dynamics, 352-988-5955 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $600s Notes: Near Chain of Lakes, Lake Louisa State Park and Lakeridge Winery; 25 miles west of downtown Orlando; Sawgrass Bay Elementary School on site; close to championship golf courses.

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LAKE COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

TRUSTCO BANK Your Home Town Bank R

lake lincoln 19530 Lake Lincoln Lane, Eustis, FL 32736 • LandseaHomes.com

Schools/Grades: Eustis (C); Eustis (C); Eustis (C) Amenities: Dog park, walking trail, playground Builder: Landsea Homes, 407-392-2601 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $300s Notes: The stylish boutiques and restaurants of Eustis and the charm of historic downtown Mount Dora are both just a short drive away; greater Orlando is also easily accessible.

Summerbrooke 2250 Natoma Boulevard, Mount Dora, FL 32757 • parksquarehomes.com

Schools/Grades: Triangle (D); Mount Dora (C); Mount Dora (B) Amenities: Pool, trails, basketball courts, fitness center, tot lot, clubhouse, dog park Builder: Park Square Homes, 407-529-3108 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the high $300s Notes: Set among the rolling hills of Lake County, the scenic beauty of Mount Dora is perfect for enjoying nature walks and the outdoors; just 2 miles from Mount Dora’s historic downtown shopping district.

preserve at Sunrise 121 Green Branch Boulevard, Groveland, FL 34736 • LandseaHomes.com Schools/Grades: Groveland (D); Gray (C); South Lake (C) Amenities: Conservation areas Builder: Landsea Homes, 407-325-9838 or 352-348.5949 Product/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $300s Notes: Low HOA dues, convenient to Florida’s Turnpike

The Canyons at Highland Ranch 516 Bellflower Way, Clermont, FL 34715 • taylormorrison.com

Schools/Grades: Grassy Lake (C); East Ridge (A); Lake Minneola (B) Amenities: Park, pool, cabana, splash pad, mail kiosk, pet stations, 4 miles of walking trails Builder: Taylor Morrison Homes, 407-756-5025 Products/Prices: Single-family, call for pricing Notes: Three beautiful collections of homes are offered; easy access to the 7-mile South Lake Trail; five public golf courses nearby.

Visit Central Florida’s largest searchable new-home database at

thefloridahomebuyer.com

SUMMER 2022

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VOLUSIA COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

TRUSTCO BANK Your Home Town Bank R

On the following pages you’ll find some of our favorite Central Florida new-home communities in Volusia County. In addition to addresses, prices, product types, amenities and builders, the listings also show designated public schools. Elementary schools are first, middle schools are second and high schools are third. In parentheses alongside the schools are the 2022 school grades, which are based on Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) scores, among other factors. School grades were not given for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lincoln Oaks 2011 Buckhanon Trail, Deland, FL 32720 • ashtonwoods.com

Schools/Grades: Citrus Grove (B); Deland (C); Deland (I) Amenities: Community pool and cabana, nature trail Builder: Ashton Woods Homes, 321-204-6254 Product/Prices: Single-family, from the high $300s Notes: Historic Deland, known as “the Athens of Florida,” offers easy access to Orlando, Lake Mary and Daytona as well as popular beaches, regional parks and one of Florida’s oldest private colleges, Stetson University.

Halifax Plantation 3500 Merritt Drive, Ormond Beach, FL 32174 • halifaxplantation.com

Schools/Grades: Pine Trail (A); Ormond Beach (B); Seabreeze (C) Amenities: Gated community; clubhouse, restaurant, lounge, golf course, tennis courts, pool, fitness center Builders: D.R. Horton Homes, 877-415-0030, Landsea Homes, 407-759-6329, Vanacore Homes, 888-519-1309 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $300s Notes: Minutes to the Atlantic Ocean, the Intercoastal Waterway and Tomoka State Park.

Rivington 660 Kimber Lane, DeBary, FL 32713 • khov.com

Schools/Grades: DeBary (B); River Springs (C); University (C) Amenities: Community amenity center with pool and indoor/outdoor common areas Builder: K. Hovnanian Homes, 321-263-2681 Products/Prices: Townhomes, from the low $300s; single-family, from the low $400s Notes: A 296-acre master-planned community adjacent to the St. Johns River, west of U.S. Hwy. 17-92 and south of Konomac Lake; easy access to Lake Mary and Sanford employment centers and just a quarter mile from the DeBary SunRail station.

Venetian Bay 424 Luna Bella Lane, Suite 122, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168 • venetianbay.info

Schools/Grades: Chisholm (A); New Smyrna Beach (I); New Smyrna Beach (B) Amenities: Golf course, driving range, putting green, splash pad, pool, clubhouse, restaurant, lounge Builders: Paytas Homes, 386-402-8185; Platinum Home Builders, 386-690-5339; The Johnson Group, 386-767-8000; D.R. Horton Homes, 844-509-7695; Meritage Homes, 855-588-6374 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the mid $300s; townhomes, from the low $300s Notes: Close to beaches; miles of trails for walking or biking.

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POLK COUNTY - SELECTED NEW-HOME COMMUNITIES

SPONSORED BY

TRUSTCO BANK Your Home Town Bank R

On the following pages you’ll find some of our favorite Central Florida new-home communities in Polk County. In addition to addresses, prices, product types, amenities and builders, the listings also show designated public schools. Elementary schools are first, middle schools are second and high schools are third. In parentheses alongside the schools are the 2022 school grades, which are based on Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) scores, among other factors. School grades were not given for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lake Lucerne 108 Sunfish Drive, Winter Haven, FL 33881 • kbhome.com

Schools/Grades: Fred G. Garner (C); Denison (C); Winter Haven (I) Amenities: Near Lake Eva Park and Lake Eva Beach Builder: KB Home, 407-587-3580 Products/Prices: Single-family, from the low $300s Notes: Near 50 lakes for fishing, boating and skiing; convenient to employers, including Winter Haven Hospital and Publix corporate headquarters; near resorts, including Legoland Florida Resort and Westgate River Ranch Resort & Rodeo; easy access to shopping and dining in Winter Haven; convenient to U.S. 27 and Polk Parkway.

Providence 131 Chadwick Drive, Davenport, FL 33837 • providenceflorida.com

Schools/Grades: Loughman Oaks (D); Shelley S. Boone (C); Ridge Community (C) Amenities: Gated community; Michael Dasher-designed 18-hole championship golf course; clubhouse and restaurant, resort-style pool, tennis courts, fitness center, volleyball court, children’s playground and picnic area Builders: ABD Development Company, 863-427-7528; Lennar 877-821-4943; FID Capital Group, 407-868-0186 Products/Prices: Single-family and townhomes, from the mid $300s Notes: Exclusive waterfront and golf course homesites available.

Tierra del sol 5219 Tuscany Lane, Davenport, FL 33897 • taylormorrison.com

Schools/Grades: Bella Cita (C); Citrus Ridge — A Civics Academy (C); Davenport (D) Amenities: Pool, cabana, tot lot Builder: Taylor Morrison Homes, 407-934-0075 Products/Prices: Single-family, call for pricing Notes: Convenient to major employers including Walt Disney World Resort, Sea World and Universal Studios; nearby Posner Park, an 80-acre open-air shopping mall, offers an impressive variety of stores and restaurants as well as a Cinepolis IMAX Theater.

We are proud to announce that

HOMEBUYER is now available in more than 300

in ORANGE, SEMINOLE, OSCEOLA, LAKE, POLK, VOLUSIA, BREVARD, MARION AND PINELLAS COUNTIES.

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AT HOME WITH MARNI JAMESON

PHOTO WALLS THAT DON’T LOOK DORKY

BY Marni Jameson

hh, the family room photo wall. Just the phrase “family photo wall” makes me lift a nostril. They’re tricky to get right. Yet, when faced with the task of capturing our blended family of five in pictures in — where else, the family room — I was stumped.

Not that a wall of family photos can’t look great, but they almost always don’t. The ones I’ve seen suffer from too many photos, many of which are faded and discolored, and hang crookedly with bad spacing in cheap mismatched frames.

On top of that, the family historians tend to keep adding photos as time marches on until they need to add another wing on the house.

An interior designer put it this way: “A collection of photos of people who have meant a lot to you in your lifetime is wonderful to have and use to make a decorative impact. But put these collections in good, coordinating frames and arrange them on long side tables or built-in shelves, not on the walls.

Photo walls are very hard to do well, and usually wind up looking dorky.”

Dorky. That’s precisely the word.

Another issue, which probably requires therapy, is that these family photo walls just make me feel so inadequate as a mother and stepmom. In reality, all that stands between me and having a dorky family photo wall is the fact that my photos never get out of my camera and into a frame.

“You should thank me,” I say to the kids when they ask why I don’t have more pictures of them out, “for not lining our walls with awkward images of you naked on a sheepskin or lurching through bad hairstyles and orthodontia.”

Another reason I balk at photo walls is the pressure they put on visitors to your home. Whenever I’m in someone’s family shrine, I never know how long to linger. Not long enough seems rude; too long seems creepy. Does anyone know the protocol here? Then there’s the issue of what to say.

“Oh, you look just like your mother!”

“That’s my father.”

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So what do you do? I wanted a personal but not cheesy, tasteful not tacky, budget-friendly solution that didn’t necessarily look budget friendly. After some brainstorming with professionals, we determined that taking your photos (or self-impressions) to a new level can be a great way to stylishly inject yourself or your family into your wall art. Here are some ways to do that: n BE ABSTRACT. Companies like canvaspop.com will take your favorite photos, stylize them so they have a vintage, sepia-toned, cartoon-like, stippled, or posterized effect, enlarge them and mount the images onto stretched canvas. For instance, you can take the same photo and have it made in four different treatments or divide one photo across three vertical rectangular canvases to form a triptych. n COPY WARHOL. Some companies will take your photo and reproduce it in a series of bold colors — yellow and turquoise, orange and fuchsia — turning your stills into pop art. n GET AN ARTIST’S IMPRESSION. If you have a fabulous photo of a loved one, have a painter, whose work you also love, create a stylized painting from the snapshot. A friend of mine has a lovely oil painting of her black terrier hanging in her home. Where a framed photo would be cute, a painting looks even better. n MAKE IT SUBTLE. Work images discreetly into other works of art. Another friend who lives in a Tuscan villa style home has in her entryway a floor-to-ceiling textural painting, which looks like a medieval tapestry. Look closer and that’s her daughter riding the unicorn, and her son wearing armor. n LEAVE YOUR MARK. At DNA11.com, a New York-based company, you can have your DNA, fingerprints or lip prints, digitized and turned into one-of-a-kind images fit for your living room. Go online to pick the size and colors you want for your impression and order a kit for your samples. (The DNA sample is a cheek swab, and the lip print involves applying lipstick they provide and kissing something.) If you’re ever wanted, this also makes it easier for the FBI. n

Marni Jameson is the author of six home and lifestyle books, including What to Do With Everything You Own to Leave the Legacy You Want; Downsizing the Family Home: What to Save, What to Let Go; and Downsizing the Blended Home: When Two Households Become One. Reach her at marnijameson.com.

MAKE HEALTHIER MOVES They say home is where the heart is – but the rest of you lives here, too. Taylor Morrison is committed to making sure the healthiest move you can make is into a new home. That’s why we offer our TM LiveWellTM features including whole-home air filtration, clean water technologies, low VOC paint and healthy home products in every new home we build. Not as upgrades but as standard features.

Safer Paint. Healthier Air. Cleaner Water. Standard. taylormorrison.com/make-moves/Orlando | 407.756.5025 *TM LiveWell™ features are subject to availability for new purchase agreements and based on region, community and specific plans. Products may be changed for comparable or newly improved replacements or additions and may not be available in a limited number of completed homes. Details available. Nothing contained herein or in any related materials regarding the TM LiveWell™ included features as of a buyer’s Purchase Agreement Date is a guaranteed commitment on performance results and health benefits or independently verified and remain subject to change daily without notice by third party suppliers outside of Taylor Morrison’s control. All information (including, but not limited to prices, views, availability, school assignments and ratings, incentives, floor plans, elevations, site plans, features, brands, standards and options, assessments and fees, planned amenities, programs, conceptual artists’ renderings and community development plans) is not guaranteed and remains subject to change, availability or delay without notice. Any community improvements, recreational features and amenities described are based upon current development plans, which are subject to change and under no obligation to be completed. Maps and plans are not to scale, are not intended to show specific detailing and all dimensions are approximate. Prices may not include lot premiums, upgrades and options depending on stage of construction.

Community Association or other fees may be required. This communication is not intended to constitute an offering in violation of the law of any jurisdiction and in such cases our communications may be limited by the laws of your state. Please see a Taylor Morrison Community Sales Manager or Internet Home Consultant for details and visit www.taylormorrison.com for additional disclaimers and complete licensing details per jurisdiction. For our Age Qualified Communities only: At least one resident of household must be 55 or older, and additional restrictions apply. Some residents may be younger than 55 in limited circumstances. For minimum age requirements for permanent residents in a specific community, please see a Taylor Morrison Community Sales Manager for complete details. © February, 2021, Taylor Morrison, Inc. (“TM”). The TM LiveWell™ registered and unregistered marks are owned by TM. All rights reserved. ORL 02/18/21 3281

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find your calm

L A U R E AT E PA R K I N L A K E N O N A Brightly colored bungalows, townhomes, cottages and estate homes from six homebuilders priced from the high $200s to over $1 million