LAKE NONA OFFERS A VISION OF CENTRAL FLORIDA'S FUTURE
The neighborhoods and biomedical facilities of the region's hottest development are an incubator for extraordinary innovation.
By Randy Noles
If you want to see the future of Central Florida, drive out to Lake Nona, just east of Orlando International Airport, and have a look at the sleek new buildings abutting cow pastures and the neocontemporary neighborhoods where homes boast daring designs and streets are named for Nobel Prize winners.
It’s a vibrant, living laboratory that demonstrates the so-called Medici Effect, a concept advanced by Frans Johansson, a Swedish author who described his theory in an influential 2004 book. When creative people from a variety of disciplines are gathered in an environment that promotes collaboration, Johansson contends, extraordinary innovation occurs.
The Medici family brought poets, philosophers, scientists, painters, architects and inventors to Florence, Italy, between the 13th and 17th centuries. Their patronage arguably ignited the Renaissance, a period of human history marked by enlightenment and advancement.
Could something like that be percolating on a 7,000-acre tract in southeast Orlando? Obviously, it’s too early to tell if the activity happening in and around Lake Nona will have global impact. But at the very least, it’s changing Central Florida from a tourist hub to a high-tech medical mecca where breakthroughs of monumental importance may well occur.
Signature facilities include the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and its Burnett Biomedical Sciences Building, the University of Florida Research and Academic Center and Nemours Children’s Hospital.
Construction delays have stymied the Veterans Administration Medical Center, which is two years behind schedule but is expected to be fully open next spring. Regardless, the VA plans to move ahead with its adjacent National Simulation Center, where health-care professionals can hone their skills using state-of-the-art, simulation-based clinical training tools.
As a result, the Lake Nona name is no longer exclusively associated with a country-club community in which professional athletes and top-tier executives cloister themselves behind iron gates. It’s now attracting some of the world’s top scientists and clinicians as well.
It’s also drawing venture capitalists, technical specialists, support personnel and an array of businesspeople who are providing professional services and entertainment options for the southeast sector’s burgeoning population.
And then, of course, there are the athletes. The United State Tennis Association recently announced that it will build a massive complex that will become “the new home of American tennis” at Lake Nona by the end of 2016. That project will unquestionably spark even more growth.
But — and this is perhaps the most salient point to make about Lake Nona’s success — you don’t have to be a scientist or an athlete to live in one of its eclectic mix of neighborhoods. In fact, most Lake Nona residents have no particular connection to medicine or sports.
They’re simply a cross-section of people — most of them families — who see a bright future and an appealing lifestyle in the area that has come to be known colloquially as Medical City.
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Lake Nona led the region in new-home starts for 2013, with 441. The next busiest project, Sawgrass Plantation in Orange County, had fewer than half that number, according to Metrostudy, a company that tracks residential real estate.
Those numbers actually surprised Rob Adams, vice president of Lake Nona Property Holdings and Tavistock Development Company, since several Lake Nona neighborhoods are winding down as they near buildout.
“But we have a lot of new things happening here as well,” notes Adams, reeling off a roster of office, hotel and retail projects that will support the community’s residents and employees of its high-profile biotech anchors.
Work is about to begin on the first phase of Lake Nona’s town center, with completion slated for mid-2015. The $100 million project, near the UCF College of Medicine, will encompass a 200-room hotel building that will house both a Marriott Residence Inn and a Courtyard by Marriott.
Also planned is an office building with about 80,000 square feet and an attached parking garage. There’ll be five restaurants, including three in the office building and two that stand alone, as well as a 300-unit apartment complex.
Future phases of the town center will also include department stores, big-box retailers and trendy fashion boutiques. A multiplex and a variety of restaurants will provide entertainment and dining options. At buildout, the town center is expected to boast more than 1 million square feet of shopping, dining and office space.
In the meantime, smaller retail and commercial centers are springing up in Lake Nona proper and just outside its boundaries.
Lake Nona Plaza, anchored by a Publix supermarket, is located south of the S.R. 417 interchange on Narcoossee Road, across the street from Lake Nona Middle School and less than a mile from Lake Nona High School and Valencia College’s new campus. In addition to Publix, there’s more than 25,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space in the plaza.
Lake Nona Village, a mixed-use center combining retail and office condominiums, contains an urgent-care center as well as practices for dentistry, ophthalmology and orthopedics.
It’s also home to Nona Blue, co-owned by PGA Tour pro Graeme McDowell, which offers freshly prepared traditional fare in an inviting and contemporary setting. There’s also the Lake Nona WineHouse and Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt as well as a newly opened Panera Bread outlet.
Work started in February on Gateway Plaza, a 75,000-square-foot office building in which Florida Hospital has leased 50,000 square feet. The hospital will install an urgent-care center, imaging and diagnostics equipment, an outpatient surgery center and a variety of specialist services.
Pegasus Health, the clinical arm of the UCF College of Medicine, has leased another 10,000 square feet in the building. Dr. Deborah German, founding dean of the UCF College of Medicine, says she’s looking forward to opening a clinic at Lake Nona.
“Our new model of care for all patients is ideally suited for Lake Nona, a place where health and wellness are core community values,” she notes
Also on the drawing board is the Innovation Center at Lake Nona, a 19,000-square foot center the will house a diverse mix of tenants, from web developers to life-sciences companies. The center will offer “collision spaces” where, in true Medici Effect style, individual companies can meet, discuss ideas, form partnerships and lead breakthroughs.
The high-tech facility, which will break ground in the fourth quarter of this year, will also be home to UCF’s Biotech Business Incubator, a 15,000-square-foot space that will welcome entrepreneurs and budding businesses who want to bring their ideas to fruition. Venture capitalists and lawyers will be on-site to offer consultation.
Lake Nona’s residential neighborhoods include Lake Nona Golf and Country Club (custom homes ranging into seven figures), as well as NorthLakePark (Park Square Homes, from the low $200s at Water’s Edge at Lake Nona), VillageWalk (Pulte Homes, from the $230s) and Laureate Park (Ashton Woods Homes, David Weekley Homes, Minto Communities and Taylor Morrison Homes, from the $230s).
Laureate Park, which will ultimately encompass 2,600 homes, “has taken off,” says Adams, accounting for most of the new-home sales within Lake Nona. A neighborhood aquatic center is open and a neighborhood-focused, 10,000-square-foot village center will soon get underway.
Concentric Restaurants — an Atlanta-based hospitality management company that previously worked with Luma on Park and Prato in Winter Park — is designing a new restaurant in the village center. The name and the concept have not been announced, but Adams says it will be a destination restaurant that will draw from across the region.
Laureate Park, where the streets are named for Nobel Prize-winners, is known for its intriguing home designs. Although it’s primarily a production-home community, participating builders pulled out all the stops to create architecturally interesting elevations.
“We did a census last year, by neighborhood, and found that the home designs and architecture were the big drivers for buyers in Laureate Park,” Adams notes.
Village Walk, a gated community that will ultimately contain about 1,400 homes, plans to open a new phase this summer called The Enclave at Village Walk. There, about 144 semi-custom, single-family homes will be offered priced between $500,000 and $800,000.
NorthLake Park has townhomes available in its Water’s Edge section — the single-family homes are built out — while Lake Nona Golf & Country Club continues to attract luxury buyers, who typically engage the region’s best custom builders to create one-of-a-kind homes.
Among its many amenities, the country club features an 18-hole, Tom Fazio-designed championship golf course and a 40,000-square-foot clubhouse as well as an 18-room guest lodge overlooking Lake Nona.
Many Central Floridians probably got their first look behind the gates in March, when Phil Kean Design Group entered a contemporary showplace in the annual Parade of Homes. Of course, you couldn’t just waltz in and take a tour; you had to make an appointment, and a Lake Nona representative had to escort you.
Apartment dwellers are also welcome in Lake Nona. Water Mark, offering 278 luxury garden apartments, opened last year. A second apartment complex, to be built next to the town center, will offer a more urban feel, says Adams. About 300 units are planned.
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And the hits just keep on coming for Lake Nona. The 750,000-member USTA unveiled plans in May for a $60 million center, which will have more than 100 courts — about double the playing space of a Mobile, Ala., center now considered the largest tennis facility in the U.S.
The 63-acre project will consolidate the USTA’s Community Tennis and Player Development divisions, which are now based in White Plains, N.Y., and Boca Raton, respectively. Many employees of those facilities will relocate, say USTA officials.
USTA chose Lake Nona because of the temperate Florida weather, convenience to the airport and the attractions and the collaborative spirit of Tavistock, which agreed to supply the land through a $1 per year lease. Orange County and the City of Orlando also committed more than $430,000 in tax incentives to help land the center, which is expected to create 154 jobs with an average salary of more than $85,000, and perhaps as high as $110,000.
“This will impact tennis on every level, from recreation up to the professional ranks,” USTA board chairman and President Dave Haggerty said during a news conference. “Virtually every level of tennis can be serviced from this facility.”
Among the highlights of the complex: A tournament and league area with 40 hard and clay courts, player pavilions and offices; 12 courts for intercollegiate play that also will serve as home for UCF’s varsity tennis teams; and 22 courts dedicated to player development.
In addition to training the next generation of players and coaches, the facility will host a range of amateur and professional tournaments, drawing fans from all over the U.S. and even the world to Central Florida.“This campus has all of the ingredients for the beginnings of a world-class sports and human performance cluster, with the USTA setting the bar,” said Rasesh Thakkar, senior managing director of Tavistock Group, in a statement.
“This is a big deal,” agreed Orlando-based economist Hank Fishkind, president of Fishkind and Associates, during an interview with WMFE-FM. “It will give rise to other things, and become the centerpiece of a business, sports and medical science complex.”
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Clearly, Lake Nona has been an extraordinary success story. And although various incentives have been used to attract some of the Medical City anchors — about $300 million for Sanford-Burnham, for example — it appears to have been money well spent.
An economic impact study by Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics in 2008 found the UCF College of Medicine, combined with a life-sciences cluster, could create 30,000 jobs with $2.8 billion in annual wages, generate $460 million in annual tax revenue and spur $7.6 billion in annual economic activity for the region by the end of 2017.
“Since 2005, there’s been over $2 billion in active construction on site,” says Adams. “From the infrastructure we put in, to the hospitals, the research institute and medical school.”
But even more important than Medical City’s economic impact is this: The next major advances in the diagnosis and treatment of mankind’s most vexing diseases may very well originate in our own backyard.
And that’s truly invaluable.
ABOUT LAKE NONA
Lake Nona is a 7,000-acre, master-planned community within the city limits of Orlando. It’s home to world-class educational and medical facilities as well as a mix of residential options, retail centers, preservation areas and a championship golf course. Lake Nona is being developed by Lake Nona Property Holdings, owned by Tavistock Group, a private investment organization with a broad portfolio of assets around the world. For more information on Lake Nona, visit learnlakenona.com. Tavistock, founded by British billionaire Joe Lewis, has investments in hundreds of companies across 15 nations. Its portfolio includes everything from life sciences to sports teams. For more information on Tavistock Group, visit tavistock.com.
ARRAY OF CHOICES
The following neighborhoods are within Lake Nona:
• Lake Nona Golf and Country Club. Private sanctuary of luxurious custom homes surrounded by an array of world-class amenities, including a Tom Fazio-designed championship golf course with a clubhouse and lodge. Homesites priced from $200,000.
• Laureate Park. Featuring homes with modern transitional architectural styles and an abundance of intelligent, forward-thinking components. Builders include Ashton Woods, David Weekley Homes, K. Hovnanian Homes, Minto Communities and Taylor Morrison Homes. Custom-home options are available from Arturo Barcelona Homes, Issa Homes and Way Cool Homes. From the high $230s.
• NorthLake Park. Neotraditional neighborhood offering single-family and multifamily homes as well as apartments. Amenities include an outdoor Olympic pool, soccer fields, basketball and tennis courts and a neighborhood dog park. An A-rated elementary school with an adjoining YMCA is on site. The neighborhood’s initial phase is nearing buildout. Waters Edge is a gated community within NorthLake Park offering single-family homes and townhomes on Lake Nona. Amenities include a lakefront park, boat dock and boat storage areas. Builder is Park Square Homes. From the $230s.
• VillageWalk. Resort-style neighborhood where streets are connected by bridges that form a walkway to the town center, with conveniences such as a café, salon, post office, bank, gas station and fitness center with a full-time activities director. Amenities include six miles of lighted walking trails, two swimming pools, tennis and basketball courts and a fitness center. A new phase, Enclave at VillageWalk, is opening this summer. Builder is Pulte Homes. From the $500s.
These neighborhoods are in the Lake Nona area:
• Eagle Creek. Master-planned community surrounded by an 18-hole golf course with manor-style clubhouse. A village center and on-site elementary school are planned. Builders include Brentwood Custom Homes, Centerline Homes and Jones Homes. From the $300s.
• East Lake Park. Gated community offering homes on quarter-acre lots. Homes feature tile roofs, paver driveways and walkways and three-car garages. Builders are Standard Pacific Homese and Meritage Homes. From the $280s.
• Fells Landing. Offering stylish and energy-efficient homes. Amenities include waterview homesites and a dog park. Builder is Meritage Homes. From the $270s.
• North Pointe. Homes feature granite counters and oak or maple cabinetry in kitchens and bathrooms, architectural shingles and stucco exteriors in designer colors. Builders include Lennar Homes and Mattamy Homes. From the $250s.
• Randal Park. 700-acre community that will eventually encompass 815 single-family and 1,400 multifamily homes. More than three miles of bike paths and fitness trails surround a five-acre central park with sports fields. There’s also a community center and eight smaller neighborhood parks and playgrounds. A pool and clubhouse will open later this summer. Builders include David Weekley Homes, M/I Homes and Mattamy Homes. From the $250s.
• Tapestry. Gated, 250-acre master-planned community encompassing 1,100 homesites. Amenities will include a clubhouse, cabana, pool, playground and parks. Builders include Beazer Homes and Mattamy Homes. From the low $200s.
Other new-home communities in the Lake Nona area include: Avellino (KB Home, from the $220s); The Estates at Lake Pointe (Vintage Estate Homes, from the $400s); Narcoosee Village (M/I Homes, from the $230s); Nova Park (Beazer Homes, from the $220s); Sawgrass Plantation (Beazer Homes, KB Home and Taylor Morrison Homes, townhomes from the $170s, single-family homes from the $200s); Waterside Vista (Park Square Homes, from the $400s); and Wyndham Lakes (Lennar Homes, single-family homes from $250,990, townhomes from $230,990).
D.R. Horton is particularly active in the area, with Turtle Creek (from the $230s); Ravinia (townhomes from the $260s); Beacon Park (townhomes from the $250s); and Villas at East Park (townhomes from the $150s).
Harmony, the nature-themed master-planned community in Osceola County, also touts its relatively close proximity to Medical City. Builders include Kent Custom Homes, Lennar Homes, Lifestyle Homes, Park Square Homes and Regatta Building and Development. Prices range from the high $100s to more than $600,000.
SMART, CONNECTED AND ICONIC
Cisco, a multinational corporation that designs, manufactures and sells networking equipment, is working with Lake Nona to create a “Smart+Connected” community.
It will be one of eight “iconic connected cities,” and the first in the U.S., to be built with fully interconnected technological systems.
Cisco, based in LaJolla, Calif., is Lake Nona’s lead partner for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) planning. With its iconic connected cities program, the company is exploring the concept of including technology in the infrastructure of a community rather than grafting it on afterwards.
Urban planners around the world are increasingly identifying IT as integral to urban development efforts. Lake Nona is being designed with Cisco technology at the heart of its ecosystem to enable residents and visitors to work, live, learn and play in new and more sustainable ways.
“Cisco’s collaboration with Lake Nona is truly groundbreaking,” says Chuck Robbins, Cisco’s senior vice president of worldwide sales: “The iconic development will showcase what’s possible when visionary leaders design and build 21st-century cities connected by a digital infrastructure.”
One example: Lake Nona will have cellular connections points not just in scattered towers, but throughout its buildings, enabling improved phone and WiFi service. In addition, instead of each carrier building its own tower, the connectivity infrastructure will be created once, and all carriers will run on the same hardware.
When complete, Lake Nona will feature more than 20 smart services, including integrated data, voice and wireless; fiber to the home; digital signage; common-area video surveillance; energy management; and unified communications.
SUSTANABILITY IS A WAY OF LIFE
At Lake Nona, sustainability isn’t just a word. Achieving the right balance between the environment and those who live, learn, work and play there is key to making certain the development thrives for generations to come.
As part of a Primary Conservation Network, more than 40 percent of Lake Nona has been left as open green space, including conservation areas and enhanced parks with recreational facilities, including 44 miles of paved and unpaved trails.
Homes at Lake Nona’s Laureate Park are designed in conjunction with the Environments For Living and GE’s Homes Inspired by Ecomagination programs, which help builders implement energy-efficient construction practices.
And during the evening hours, much of Lake Nona is illuminated with energy-saving LED lighting.
HERE’S WHY IT’S CALLED MEDICAL CITY
Thanks to Medical City’s health sciences anchors, Orlando will soon be as well-known for leading-edge medical treatment and research as it is for world-class attractions and resorts. The long-term impact of may well surpass that of Martin Marietta in the 1950s and Walt Disney World in the 1960s and 1970s. Here’s a rundown of the major facilities:
• The Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. This $85 million, 175,000-square-foot facility, which opened in 2009 as the first piece of the Medical City puzzle, encompasses the Diabetes and Obesity Research Center and the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics. Scientists there are also investigating potential treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
• The University of Central Florida College of Medicine. UCF’s Health Sciences Campus now includes a 170,000-square-foot medical education facility as well as the 198,000-square-foot Burnett Biomedical Sciences building. Now in its fourth year, the M.D. program boasts 400 students, a tenfold increase from its first year. In addition, more than 2,350 undergraduates are majoring in the biomedical sciences, including biotechnology, medical laboratory sciences and molecular biology.
• The University of Florida Research and Academic Center. The state’s flagship university has built a $53 million, 115,000-square-foot facility that houses its Institute on Aging — a program that studies, among other things, drug interactions in the elderly — as well as the UF College of Pharmacy. The emphasis is on clinical research related to diabetes and cardiovascular disease as well as obesity. Through the UF Institute of Therapeutic Innovation, also located in Lake Nona, researchers are conducting trials to help develop new anti-infectious disease drugs.
• The Orlando Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center. Slated to open this spring, the $665 million, 1.2-million-square-foot facility will encompass 134 beds, including 22 intensive-care beds and 40 mental-health beds. A 60-bed domiciliary, which is already operational, provides assisted living and other services to economically disadvantaged veterans. In addition, there’ll be a 52,000-square-foot National Simulation Center with 10 classrooms for as many as 160 students. Eventually, the VA hospital will care for some 110,000 veterans annually.
• Nemours Children’s Hospital. This world-class pediatric healthcare provider with a hospital in Wilmington, Del., and clinics throughout Florida (including Orlando), New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has built a 95-bed, 630,000-square-foot hospital. The private Nemours Foundation funded the project’s entire $397 million cost. Adjacent to the hospital is land for a Ronald McDonald House. The $5.8 million facility is set to break ground next fall.
LEARNING FOR LIFE AT VALENCIA
Valencia College’s Lake Nona Campus, which opened in 2012, is an ideal place to train for careers in the life
sciences. After all, it’s located squarely in the heart of the country’s most dynamic biomedical cluster.The three-story, 83,000 square-foot building replaced shared space at nearby Lake Nona High School. Eventually, the campus will consist of four buildings.
There are 18 “smart” classrooms, six science labs — including a biotech lab — a library, a bookstore, small café and student services offices. Sitting areas are designed to encourage studying in groups, catching up with friends or just contemplating the third-floor view of Lake Whippoorwill.Students can earn traditional associate degrees at the Lake Nona Campus, but the primary focus is on math and science. A new Associate in Science degree in biotechnology debuted last year while programs in physical and occupational therapy are also planned.
Built at a cost of $21.7 million by the design-build team of SchenkelShultz Architecture and PPI Construction, the Lake Nona Campus boasts such environmentally friendly features as energy saving lights and air conditioning, reflective roofing materials and native landscaping that requires very little piped irrigation.
TIMELINE
Over the last several years, Lake Nona’s Medical City has literally risen from the ground up. Here’s a look back at the major milestones in the project’s development:
August 2010
The UCF College of Medicine opens a 50-acre Health Sciences Campus. Cost, $166 million; size, 368,000 square feet; staff, 400.
May 2009
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona opens its east coast facility. Cost, $85 million; size, 175,000 square feet; staff, 300.
January 2012
UCF’s trustees vote unanimously to purchase 25 acres in Medical City near the UCF College of Medicine for a future teaching hospital and clinic.
August 2012
The University of Florida Research and Academic Center, which houses its doctoral pharmacy program and drug development center, opens its doors. Cost, $42 million; size, 100,000 square feet; staff, 120 employees, 200 students.
October 2012
Nemours Children’s Hospital opens its facility and begins accepting patients. Cost, $397 million; size, 630,000 square feet; staff, 1,000.
May 2013
The charter class of students at the UCF College of Medicine graduates. The 36 new doctors all received full-ride, four-year scholarships courtesy of community donors.
May 2014
The United States Tennis Association announces plans for a 63-acre, $60 million center with more than 100 courts. The center will consolidate the USTA’s Community Tennis and Player Development divisions and serve as its ‘New Home for American Tennis’.