Osceola County

About 50,000 new homes are expected to be built in seven megaprojects in the northern reaches of the county: Westlake Cove, Friar’s Cove, Mariner’s Cove, Toho Reserve, Bella Terra, Green Island and Edgewater.

Then there’s Destiny, a proposed new city on 27,400 acres near Yeehaw Junction that could eventually have as many as 100,000 residents. In all, by 2025 the county’s population is expected to swell from 235,000 to 550,000.?
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“I like to refer to Osceola as the new frontier,” says Don Wetherington, president of Wetherington Builders and president-elect of the Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando.

Wetherington is currently building homes in Harmony, an environmentally-friendly project on 11,000 acres near the Brevard County line. Only about a third of Harmony’s acreage will be developed, however.

“The hook here is our dedication and devotion to protecting the environment,” Wetherington says. “That’s what makes it different than other developments in Central Florida.” Wetherington Builders is one of four custom- and two production-builders in Harmony.

But while Harmony attracts high-end buyers, Osceola remains a bastion of affordability. KB Home, for example, recently opened Hammock Trails, with 260 single-family homes in the heart of Kissimmee priced from the low $200s.

D.R. Horton is also busy in Osceola with Raintree at Spring Lake Village and Parkview at Lakeshore in Kissimmee and Anthem Park in St. Cloud. Likewise Lennar Homes is active in Kissimmee with a townhome community, Paradise Palms. Prices in all these communities range from the $200s to the $300s.

But it’s not just all about new-home developments. Kissimmee, the county seat as well as the county’s largest city, is also home to City Centre, a mixed-use project that will feature 31 luxury condominiums in an eight-story building along with 56,000 square feet of office space and 24,000 square feet of retail space in a three-story building.

Ray Parsons of Parsons Design and Development says the complex should be complete by March 2008. Among the tenants who have signed on, he says, are Nature’s Table and Keller Williams Real Estate.?

Parsons, one of the project’s developers, notes that City Centre is surrounded by some highly desirable amenities, including a city park and Lake Tohopekaliga. Nearby, plans call for a multipurpose transportation center that would accommodate busses, commuter rail and Amtrak passenger service.

City Centre may be a jewel in downtown Kissimmee’s crown, but it won’t be the only one. Thanks to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the historic business district has been revitalized and renovated. A cowboy-themed archway at Main Street and U.S. 192 welcomes visitors and pays homage to the city’s heritage.

Jack Frey, president of the Osceola County Association of Realtors, (OSCAR), is glad to see the county come into its own. “Growth isn’t a bad thing as long as it’s managed,” he says. “You just can’t turn people loose or there’ll be no green areas left.”

Frey notes that home prices in Osceola run about 15 percent lower than in Orange and Seminole counties. Indeed, according to OSCAR, the median price of an Osceola resale home as of June 2007 was $227,750, compared with $252,250 in Orange and $268,000 in Seminole.?

In the Orlando Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), only Orlando" target="_blank">Lake County had a lower median price than Osceola ($222,000). Figures for new-home prices weren’t available at presstime, but where resales are less expensive new construction generally follows suit.

In addition, despite the current sluggish market, Frey and others believe that because of the projected growth rate, homes in Osceola have tremendous long-term appreciation potential.
But boosters say Osceola offers more than relative affordability and value. Kim Goodwin, who has been a Realtor for more than 16 years with family-owned Goodwin Realty & Associates in Kissimmee, says that despite its growth, Osceola continues to exemplify timeless small-town virtues and old-fashioned family values.

“I think Osceola is a great place to raise a family,” says Goodwin. “We have generation after generation of families who have made it a tradition to raise their families here.”?

In fact, many of those multi-generational residents are from venerable farming and ranching families whose once-rural acreage is rapidly giving way to new communities.

Still, county officials are determined that Osceola’s business growth remain as vibrant as its residential growth. That’s why the Osceola County Department of Economic Development (DED) is busy touting the county’s charms to corporate relocators.
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“Our focus is on corporate headquarters, manufacturing and distribution,” says DED Executive Director Maria Grulich.? In fact, the organization recently announced that seven new companies, including a 1.8-million-square-foot Lowe’s Regional Distribution Center, have moved their operations to Osceola.

Among other major companies calling Osceola County home are BASS (wholly-owned-subsidiary of ESPN), Symbol Mattress and Infrastructure Engineers. Some of the county’s largest employers are Mercury Marine, Orange Lakes Country Club and Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center.

But even with all the imminent changes, ranches, woods and marsh will for now continue to predominate, especially to the south and east of Kissimmee.

Those large tracts include the Mormon Church-owned Deseret Ranches as well as wildlife management areas and preserves at Bull Creek, Prairie Lakes and the Three Lakes. Towns in that area that will remain small and rural include Holopaw, Kenansville, and Yeehaw Junction - for now.

Besides Kissimmee with a population of about 60,000, Osceola’s? only other incorporated city is St. Cloud, which is home to 26,000 residents. But St. Cloud is expected to add an estimated 24,000 residents as 10 new-home communities are completed.?

The biggest include Stevens Plantation, developed by the city of St. Cloud, and Mallard Pond, developed by Lennar Homes. And on the eastern edge of Lake Tohopekaliga, just outside the city limits, a 6,000-home project called Pineloch could add 20,000 more people assuming the property is annexed.

In addition, St. Cloud civic leaders have taken steps to create an identity for the city separate and distinct from Kissimmee and from the nearby theme parks.

In the 1970s, St. Cloud joined Kissimmee to promote itself as an affordable alternative for vacationers wishing to explore Central Florida’s attractions without paying resort-hotel prices for accommodations. But several years ago, the city redesigned its logo to drop Cinderella’s castle and replaced it with a sailboat. And a new slogan was adopted: “Celebrating Small Town Life.”

The largest unincorporated communities in Osceola are Poinciana (population 77,100) and Buenaventura Lakes (population 21,000). Other population centers include Intercession City, home to 25,500 residents and Celebration, which is at 6,800 and counting.

Celebration, in fact, may well have been the catalyst for much of Osceola’s current growth. The picturesque master-planned community, conceived by the Walt Disney Company, got under way in the early 1990s, and became an instant success with its traditional architecture, its quaint town center and its Disney panache.

Speaking of Disney, tourism is still a mainstay for the county, which welcomes six million visitors a year. But many visitors are there for the county’s natural attractions, such as the the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, recognized worldwide for its trophy largemouth bass. Hunters can enjoy the wide-open Osceola Plain, home to turkey, white-tailed deer and fox squirrels.

And for baseball fans, Osceola County Stadium at Osceola Heritage Park is the spring training home to the Houston Astros while Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex is where the Atlanta Braves get ready each March.

Clearly, then, there’s a lot to like about Osceola County. Says Goodwin: “Even though we’re growing, it’s still a tight-knit community.”?