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Best of Orlando

What's hot and cool about Central Florida real estate.

By Editorial Staff

At Orlando Homebuyer, we love creating lists. So this year, in the tradition of our city/regional magazine brethren, we decided to create a list of "bests." But instead of choosing the top plastic surgeons, newscasters, hot dog vendors and athletes, we decided to stick to our specialty—real estate.

However, the list comes with a caveat: This compilation is subjective and is not intended to be the final, undisputed word. In fact, there are so many unique communities in Central Florida that there are multiple winners in numerous categories.

We just hope you’ll use this admittedly unscientific roundup as a starting point to find what’s "best" for you and your family.

Best Amenity Package

Something you’ll never hear a kid say at family-oriented Stoneybrook West: "Mom, there’s nothing to do." In fact, residents of the popular gated community, located in southwest Orange County, enjoy access to beautiful 235-acre Black Lake for boating, fishing and water sports. Residents also enjoy a waterfront fitness center, a community center, an inline skating rink, basketball and tennis courts, a Junior Olympic swimming pool and sports fields. Bellalago is equally impressive with a marina, an 8,000-square-foot aquatic complex featuring three pools and a waterslide, two 7,000-square-foot fitness centers and tennis, basketball and volleyball courts. For more passive recreation, there’s, a fishing pier and walking, biking, and jogging trails.

Best Place for Horsing Around

The equestrian center at Bella Collina, located in the quaint Lake County community of Montverde, will feature training areas, private stables, a show area, riding trails and pastures. Programs and services will be offered by the center to serve the seasoned rider and novice alike. At Golden Ocala in Marion County—long regarded as prime horse country—the equestrian complex includes 400 stalls, a covered arena, a warm-up arena, outdoor arenas, a children’s play area and concession stands. And the homes where people live are lovely, too.

Best Aquatic Center

There’s nothing like a waterpark to bring out the kids—or the kid in you. The Vista Lakes Resident’s Club features a Junior Olympic pool, a kiddie pool with an elephant spray fountain, a pirate’s shipwreck adventure, a sundeck with lounge chairs and two-story water slide. At Reunion Resort, a vacation-home community located in Osceola County, you can float down the lazy river or hurl down twisting water slides. At the community’s Seven Eagles Pool Pavilion you can swim or relax one of two Jacuzzis.

Best Place to Spot a Celebrity

At Isleworth, located in southwest Orange County, your neighbors include sports celebrities such as Tiger Woods, Shaquille O’Neal, Mark O’Meara and Ken Griffey Jr. Planet Hollywood CEO Robert Earl also calls Isleworth home and even Michael Jackson took up residence for a time. Since he’s been acquitted of tax evasion, you might also catch a glimpse of actor Wesley Snipes. On the southeast side, Lake Nona likewise boasts an A-list roster of pro athletes, particularly golfers. In fact, the two communities have so many PGA Tour regulars living within their gates that they’re able to hold a $2 million tournament, the Tavistock Cup, with only resident pros competing.

Best Family Atmosphere

At Vista Lakes, located in southeast Orange County, you’ll find parks, schools, an aquatics center and such activities as Mommy & Me groups, exercise classes, tennis lessons and even a swim team. A fulltime activities director keeps things hopping. Stoneybrook West is also a contender (see Best Amenities Package) as is Orlando’s Baldwin Park, with its on-site school, walkable town center and playable parks and greenspaces. Eco-friendly Harmony, located in Osceola County, also boasts on-site schools and an array of amenities plus pet parks, picnicking and camping areas and a swim club.

Best Place to Live/Work/Play

The upscale Seminole County community of Heathrow, the region’s pioneering live/work/play development, combines approximately 2,000 homes and the Heathrow International Business Center, which has emerged as the heart of the region’s high-tech boom. Avalon Park, located in southeast Orange County, also encompasses a mix of housing styles, civic uses, office/commercial buildings and a downtown area. Baldwin Park boasts apartments above retail stores and live/work homes with optional professional offices at entrances. MetroWest, located in southwest Orange County, likewise offers an array of neighborhoods as well as an assortment of retailer centers and office parks where a number of companies, such as Hard Rock Caf? have established headquarters. As for the "play" component of live/work/play, all of these projects are loaded with amenities that make work more bearable.

Best Place to Stargaze

The skies above Harmony are so clear that the community hosts an annual Dark Sky Festival intended to celebrate the beauty of a night sky free from the effects of excessive light pollution. All public lighting in Harmony is Dark-Sky compliant, making this is the only Central Florida community where a telescope ought to come with every home.

Best Downtown Condo

A number of downtown Orlando condo projects have been cancelled or delayed, but several upscale offerings are doing nicely, thank you. The Vue, across from Lake Eola, boasts a 24-hour doorman, full-time concierge service, a cyber caf?and a tennis/athletic court among its amenities. The Sanctuary, also touting Lake Eola views, has 24-hour security, a fifth-level pool deck with hot tub, a spacious sun deck, a state-of-the-art fitness center, a private four-story parking garage and on-site restaurants Grazie and Fifi’s Bistro and Wine Bar. Star Tower, Orlando’s first boutique-style condo development, features a rooftop pool offering panoramic downtown views as well as a fitness center.

Best Coup

The deal was an on-again, off-again affair—but the Burnham Institute for Medical Research is coming to Lake Nona. That facility, along with the new UCF College of Medicine, will anchor a "medical city" encompassing pharmaceutical, biotech and medical research firms as well as a possible VA Hospital. The importance of this project can’t be overstated in a region where the economy is so dependent on service industry jobs.

Best Green Development

Oakland Park, located in northwest Orange County, is the first new-home community in Central Florida to earn certification as an environmentally friendly "green" community by the nonprofit Florida Green Building Coalition. Avington Park, located in the picturesque city of Mount Dora in Lake County, which is also being developed according to Florida Green Building Coalition guidelines, is focused on preservation of natural areas and energy-efficiency. Harmony is offering Energy Star-rated homes and boasts 7,700 acres of open space. The entire community is designed based on the premise that man and nature can live in, well, harmony.

Best Multigenerational Development

Victoria Park, located in western Volusia County near DeLand, features distinctive, thoughtfully designed neighborhoods for everyone from young families to active adults. The amenity-rich community also features a Ron Garl-designed golf course and an array of common areas where the generations can meet and mingle.

Best Community for Golfers

Lake Forest, Heathrow Country Estates, Keene’s Pointe, Lake Nona, Providence, Bella Collina, The Palisades, Solivita, Victoria Park, Harmony, Reunion Resort and many other communities fit the bill. Just take your pick.

Best Lake Views

With literally thousands of lakes dotting the region, this was a tough call, as evidenced by the fact that there are multiple winners. Windsong is situated along the shores of three sparkling lakes in the heart of old Winter Park. Lake Nona abuts one of Florida’s most pristine group of lakes, including its 600-acre, spring-fed namesake. Isleworth is surrounded by no less than seven lakes. And at Keene’s Pointe, located in Windermere, you can access the prestigious Butler Chain of Lakes, including Lake Tibet-Butler and Lake Burden.

Best Place to See Disney Fireworks

Disney spares no expense on its evening fireworks displays, and you’ll have a magnificent view from your backyard in Lakes of Windermere, located just minutes from the theme park. In Venezia, located in the Dr. Phillips-area, you can see Disney, Sea World and Universal Studios fireworks from different vantage points.

Most Showhomes

For high-profile showhomes, Baldwin Park has been the community of choice recently. It’s hosted the 2005 New American Home, the 2005 New Urban Challenge, the 2007 In Sync Home, the 2008 Tradewinds High-Performance Home and the Teacher’s House.

Most Price Variety

One of the ideas behind Traditional Neighborhood Development is that homes should be offered in a variety of styles and price ranges. At Baldwin Park, that concept is a reality. There are condos from the high-$100s, single-family homes and townhomes from the $300s to $800s and custom estates priced to over $5 million. There are also luxury rentals and live/work units available.

Best First Impression

At Independence, located in southwest Orange County, you know you’ve arrived—literally. The grand entrance includes pedestrian portals, gas-flame monuments, a 50-foot clock tower, a 512-foot reflecting pond and a brick-paver street lined with oaks.

Best Architectural Theme

Tuscan is popular in Florida, but it’s rarely executed with the skill and attention to detail you’ll find in upscale Bella Collina, where some of the region’s top custom builders are demonstrating their artistry.

Best Infill Community

The Douglas Grand, located in the heart of downtown Winter Park, will highlight timeless architecture recalling Manhattan’s lovely old brownstones. The project will encompass 18 single-story flats and 24 townhomes as well as commercial space-all steps from posh Park Avenue. Another downtown Winter Park multifamily project, The Trovillion, is also steps away from the region’s most renowned shopping district, Rollins College and the Winter Park Chain of Lakes. The only sizeable single-family community under way in Winter Park—and likely the last, since there are no undeveloped large tracts in the city—is Windsong, where custom homes are situated among three lakes. Much of the land was once a private estate.

Best Place for Dogs

Harmony isn’t the only community boasting a dog park. But it is the only one with a specific mission to encourage the peaceful co-existence of people and animals. That means you, too, Fido.

Best Preservation Effort in a New Community

Among the amenities at the all-green community of Oakland Park, is the 130-year-old former Tilden family estate home, known as Meadowmarsh. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Encompassing beautifully manicured open grounds and surrounded by hundred-year-old oaks, this estate is an ideal setting for special occasions and social gatherings within the community. In fast-growing Central Florida, preservation and re-use of any historic structure is worth noting—and saluting.

Best Place for Anglers

Located on Lake Tohopekaliga with over 1.2 miles of shoreline, Bellalago features private docking facilities and a boat house where fishing supplies as well as light boating gear is sold. And locals know that Lake Toho is one of the region’s finest bass-fishing destinations.

Best Vacation Home Development

Let’s see, you’ve got golf, tennis, swimming, fitness facilities and luxurious homes with daily housekeeping and room service offered—just minutes from the attractions. Indeed, Reunion Resort & Club has set the standard for vacation-home communities in the vacation capital of the world.

Most Historic Golf Course

Outside of Leesburg in the Lake County town of Howey-in-the-Hills, Mission Inn Resort & Club offers two golf courses, one of which, the El Campeon, dates back to 1917 and is still rated among GolfWeek’s top 25 courses in the state.

Best Single Amenity

VillageWalk at Lake Nona residents enjoy a heated resort-style swimming pool, lighted tennis courts, a state-of-the-art fitness center and neighborhood walking paths. But perhaps the coolest amenity is a private gas station located in the Town Center. The sheer convenience sure makes those $3-per-gallon prices easier to take.

Best Access to St. Johns River

Riviera Bella, a Mediterranean-inspired, master-planned community located in Seminole County, offers a private boat launch directly on the St. Johns River. From your home, you can take a river-route all the way to Jacksonville and the ocean.

Best Location on Chain of Lakes

Palisades offers country-club style living with exceptional amenities including convenient access to the Clermont Chain of Lakes. Also ranking high in this category are Isleworth and Keene’s Pointe, both on the Butler Chain of Lakes, which is accessible to outlanders only via one county ramp on Lake Isleworth.

Best Place for Gourmands

Vizcaya, a Mediterranean-style community in southwest Orange County, is within walking distance of what Orlandoans call "Restaurant Row." The "row" features Chatham’s Place, Oceanside Seafood Room, Cedar’s Restaurant of Orlando, Christini’s, Ristorante Italiano, Morton’s Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, Amura Sushi, Roy’s, Season’s 52, The Samba Room, Timpano Chophouse, The Melting Pot, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, MoonFish Restaurant, Jeffrey’s Restaurant and Piano Bar, Ayothaya Thai Cuisine, Antonio’s Ristorante and Carrino’s Lakefront Restaurant. Tuscan-themed Toscana is also temptingly near this regional dining mecca.

Best Themed Active-Adult Development

Solivita, located in Osceola County, has won numerous awards for its Old-World, Tuscan-style architecture. Cobblestone streets and quaint storefronts in the town center are among the touches demonstrating that in Solivita, the details make the difference.

Best Place to Get High

Sugarloaf Mountain, being developed by the LandMar Group in Lake County, is a 1,400-acre master-planned golf community on property boasting elevations of more than 300 feet—mountainous by Central Florida standards and offering amazing views of Lake Apopka. Therefore, villages within the community are appropriately named The Hilltop and The Overlook. LandMar, known for being an environmentally conscious developer, is retaining the site’s thick oak canopy. Trees that have to be removed are being relocated to the golf course or other common areas.