The Lake Nona development in southeast Orlando is on solid ground financially, owned as it is by British billionaire Joe Lewis and controlled by his Tavistock Group Inc. in Windermere.
Just as importantly, it has plenty of real ground.
"We have more land mass than Winter Park," said Robert Adams, vice president of marketing for Lake Nona Golf & Country Club. The club is the crown jewel of the 7,000-acre spread, but it's just a tiny piece in the treasure chest of Lake Nona, now 21 years old.
These are slower times for local builders and developers, so the backing of a billionaire helps ensure Lake Nona's long-term success.
Many residential developers are scrambling for customers, cutting home prices and giving away cruises to get people to tour their empty models. Lake Nona, by contrast, is preparing the ground for a medical school, a veterans hospital, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, a town center, and a 500-acre science-and-technology office park. Plus lots of homes.
There's room for about 20,000 people, in addition to the 1,000 homes already occupied, most of them since Tavistock took control in 1997.
The company-owned community has so much land, it recently donated 334 acres to Orlando for a city park.
That's eight times bigger than Lake Eola Park, at 43 acres, and 11 percent larger than the city's previous largest public playground, the 300-acre Turkey Lake Park on the southwest side of town."
All roads lead to Lake Nona," said Adams, speaking last week at the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties' monthly meeting at the Sheraton Downtown Orlando. "That's because all roads lead to the [Orlando International] Airport. And we're right next to the airport."
That doesn't hurt.
Adams said Tavistock Managing Director Rasesh Thakkar, Lewis' right-hand man in Orlando, had been scheduled to speak at the association meeting but was asked at the last minute by University of Central Florida President John Hitt to accompany him to the state capital to meet with lawmakers about UCF projects at Lake Nona. Courtesy Orlando Sentinel 10/1/07.
