An Address to Impress

Winter Park, still one of Central Florida's most prestigious addresses, was designed to be a gathering place for the rich and sometimes famous.

In 1881, Loring Chase and Oliver Chapman shelled out $13,000 for 600 wooded acres that would become the city's core and started planning a tranquil winter resort for sun-seeking northerners.

One of the first orders of business that year was setting aside a spot for a lakeside resort hotel. Chase and Chapman also laid out the city's streets, carved out a 10-acre park and platted a residential district on the west side of town for servants and workers who would build and staff the resort.

The pair had location going for them. The area's many lakes and stately, moss-laden oaks made it beautiful from the beginning. But they had a good marketing plan, too.

By 1890, two U.S. presidents-Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison-had visited Winter Park, staying at the Seminole Hotel, a luxurious 200-room marvel with gas lights and steam heat.

This magnificent getaway, located at New England, Chase and Osceola avenues, was the largest hotel south of Jacksonville when it opened on New Year's Eve in 1886.

Over time, the city morphed from a winter escape into a year-round community, yet its upscale image remains. The average sale price for a home in Winter Park is about $100,000 above the average sale price elsewhere in Metro Orlando.

Small wonder. The city, with a population of about 22,000, also boasts a strong arts tradition, a leading liberal arts college, an array of shopping choices, plenty of trendy restaurants and, soon, a passel of luxury condominiums in its quaint downtown.

The new condos are big news in a city that was basically built-out decades ago. In fact, condos, remodels and tear-downs comprise the bulk of residential building going on in Winter Park, where even modest lots are often worth far more than the homes that were built on them.

"The trend toward tear-downs continues," says Winter Park city planner Jeffrey Briggs, who notes that building permit activity, both in numbers of permits and in dollar value, was 20 percent higher last year than in any previous year.

Jon and Theresa Swanson, local entrepreneurs who dabble in real estate, jumped on the teardown bandwagon this year when they and a neighboring property owner demolished three modest homes on four contiguous lots east of Winter Park Hospital. The group plans to replace the three single-family homes with eight detached cottage homes that will sell for more than $500,000 each.

"The city is being careful and really doing it right," says Theresa Swanson. "You can't get a demolition permit unless the city certifies that the house you're tearing down isn't historically significant and isn't in a historic district. It isn't easy to tear down a house in Winter Park, and that's good-that means city officials are protecting the integrity of the community."

Winter Park's only new single-family development of any size—Windsong, with 251 home sites—was almost sold out until the developers, The Keewin Real Property Company and East West partners, added another 16 acres to the project this fall. Now theres room for 40 additional homes on the former site of Glenridge Middle School, which was demolished and rebuilt across the street.

Homes in Windsong's second phase, dubbed Knowles Place at Windsong, will be priced from $900,000 to $8 million, says Lisa Barton, the development's marketing director. There'll also be a three-acre park on the site.

But like Windsong's first phase, Knowles Place won't be gated-the city prohibits gated communities, preferring that its stately neighborhoods blend seamlessly.

The original Windsong site, which borders lakes Virginia, Berry and Mizell, was bought by Chicago industrialist Charles Homer Morse in 1904. The Morse estate, isolated and populated by peacocks, was virtually untouched for years as Winter Park grew up around it. Knowles Place at Windsong will truly be the last significant undeveloped parcel in Winter Park.

But Windsong is a notable exception. With land scarce and expensive; luxury condominiums have become the hottest housing trend in town.

"Ten years ago you had to put a gun to somebody's head to get them to go in a condominium," says Briggs, who has been city planner for more than 25 years. "Now condo development is carrying the residential market."

And the projects under construction are about what you'd expect in Winter Park, where the street signs admonish motorists to "drive with extraordinary care."

All are tastefully posh and most are being built in the vicinity of the popular Park Avenue business district, which means office and retail space will occupy the bottom floors.

"We're seeing as much residential construction in commercial areas as we are in residential areas," notes Briggs.

The Carlisle, slated to replace the old post office building on New York Avenue, will be a four-story stunner that will include underground parking and office space on the first floor. And the post office isn't really going anywhere—it'll be on the first floor, too.

The Carlisle's remaining three floors will contain 74 condo units with resort-style amenities, such as around-the-clock concierge service, a fitness center, a swimming pool, a business center and a community room. Prices will range from the upper $750s to more than $2 million.

Another mixed-use development in the Park Avenue area is slated for the Sprint property at the corner of New York and Morse Boulevard. Douglas Partners will soon begin construction on Douglas Grand at Winter Park, with 42 one- and two-story condo units ranging in price from the high $700s to $1.2 million. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2006.

"Bringing homes to the downtown area should be good for the local businesses," says Briggs. "We call it 'feet on the street.'"

Still, the proposed new buildings have caused some controversy.

"Some folks lament the size, both the height and the bulk, of some of these projects."

Just a few blocks away, on the site of the former Langford Hotel at East New England Avenue, there are two other condominium projects under way.

One is named the Langford—a nod to the landmark hotel that occupied the site for a half-century.

The project, now nearing completion, will have 31 units selling for $900,000 to $2.5 million.

Next door, the first phase of The Regent Orlando in Winter Park has been completed. A seven-story building, dubbed The Regent Residences, has 23 units, two of which are two stories each. A pool with a dramatic view of Park Avenue and the surrounding lakes and residential streets sits on the top floor.

"We're marketing it as mansions in the sky," says Mark Ellert, president of IAG Florida, one of the project's developers. "There are drop-dead views from the deck of the city skyline—Lake Virginia, Lake Osceola and Rollins College."

The units average 3,700 square feet in size and range from just over $2 million to just under $3 million in price. There were only a handful of units left for sale at press time.

In the meantime, construction is beginning on an adjacent 230-unit condominium hotel, which will also be part of The Regent Orlando in Winter Park complex.

The hotel suites, ranging from 500 to 1,000 square feet are priced from the mid $300s to more than $1 million. Owners may choose to offer their units for rent when they aren't using them, Ellert says.

Ellert is seeking five-star status for the hotel, which will include a spa as well as a gourmet restaurant managed by celebrity Chef Michelle Bernstein.

When Ellert's company began plans for The Regent, consultants were skeptical that there was a market for such high-end housing in the Orlando area.

"But we've had a strong response and interest," he says. "Buyers are wealthy, for the most part entrepreneurs, who travel frequently for business or pleasure, principally empty-nesters. For them, this is an elegant lifestyle."

Surely, somewhere Loring Chase and Oliver Chapman are smiling.

WINTER PARK AT A GLANCE

POPULATION:
24,090

LAND AREA:
8 square miles

MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME:
$73,697 (Florida: $38,819)

MEDIAN HOME VALUE:
$203,700 (Florida: $105,500)

BACHELOR'S DEGREE OR HIGHER:
50.1 percent (Florida: 15.1 percent)

FACTOID:
The area now encompassing Winter Park was called Lake View in the 1850s. By 1870, when a post office came to town, it was renamed Osceola.