Saving Trees Makes for Good Business

Have you heard about Wellen Park yet? If not, then you’re sure to hear a lot more soon. In Venice, FL, just minutes away from Florida’s western coast, lies this upand coming-community. The community currently has just under 10,000 residents but hopes to house over 60,000 once construction is completed—and the homes are selling fast. As of 2020, Wellen Park was number four in top-selling master-planned communities in the U.S. This community is definitely one to watch.

by Madison Swart

West Villages has seven individual neighborhoods of single-family homes, each with their own charms. The Playmore district is made up of condos, villas, and single-family homes with access to walking trails and the Atlanta Braves practice stadium, which hosts farmer’s markets, movie nights, and concerts when the Braves are out of town. Downtown will be home to luxury apartments right outside of a new commercial center.

Downtown Wellen’s completion is still on the horizon, expected in late 2022, but you can already tell that it’s going to be something special. According to Wellen Park President Rick Severence, “We allowed the area to grow up around us and see what we needed, and that was a commercial downtown area for all of the residents of this region.”

The downtown area will be an extension of Wellen Park’s mission to create an active and connected community. An 80-acre lake will provide an ideal spot for kayakers and paddleboarding enthusiasts alike, and a three-mile-long health and wellness trail will surround the lake for walking and biking. There will be both a splash pad and a playground for the kiddos, shops will line the streets, and for hungry patrons, there will be waterfront restaurants as well as a food truck area.

Wellen Park has three districts: West Villages, Playmore, and Downtown Wellen.

Perhaps one of the most unique parts of Downtown Wellen is the tree preservation project. The Heritage Tree Program has helped to relocate 26 live oaks—with decades of history and that would otherwise have been torn down—from other parts of the property to Downtown Wellen. The new downtown has been designed around the 100-year-old heritage tree that’s 95” in diameter. “These trees are beautiful and worth saving, plus they will allow us to create a truly special environment at the entrance to Downtown Wellen and throughout the community,” says Christine Masney, Wellen Park’s Vice President of Marketing.

Wellen Park worked to preserve the integrity of the project by employing the help of arborists and engineers who waterand root-pruned the tress for over a year in order to relocate them. In fact, this effort to preserve the natural features of the community cost nearly $1 million, but Severence concludes that the project has been well worth it. “You get the environmental benefits, the sustainability, but because of the strategic location of these trees, we have accomplished something essential for south Florida, which is to provide substantial shade in an urban environment. We wanted to celebrate the beauty and the scale of these trees,” says Severence.

These 26 trees are expected to absorb thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide per year and should help to prevent stormwater runoff. The community also plans to repurpose stormwater for irrigation on the property. And, the community has no plans of stopping when it comes to preserving the natural beauty of the area. In fact, Severence has already proposed getting residents involved with tree plantings. One date is already in the books for September, where 100 trees are set to be put in the ground, and Severence hopes that this will become a regular event.

“The tress help establish a sense of of community, because they lend a sense of scale and heritage to what we are designing as a new downtown. Just as the trees will spread out roots in their new homes, so will the couples and families who choose to call Wellen Park home,” declares Severence.

For Wellen Park, everything comes down to community. From kayaking and golfing, to farmers markets and tree plantings, Wellen Park’s vision is to see a community that is active and connected, both with the location and each other, and Downtown Wellen and the Heritage Trees will help to bring that vision to life.