Lake Nona, Orlando, Florida
Lake Nona is a 7,000-acre (28 km2) mixed-use planned community within the city limits of Orlando, southeast of Orlando International Airport. Being developed by Lake Nona Property Holdings (owned by Tavistock Group), the Lake Nona Region is home to Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, a life sciences cluster becoming known as Lake Nona's medical city, and an array of retail centers, recreational facilities and residential options.
The community is named for a large lake in the northern part.
Lake Nona Medical City is an emerging biomedical research and educational hub which includes the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and Health Sciences Campus, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Orlando VA Medical Center (opening in 2014), Nemours Children's Hospital and a University of Florida Research and Academic Center. In the Lake Nona area, the population has grown from merely 1,500 in 2000 to over 50,000 people in 2015. In just the past 5 years alone, the population increased from roughly 27,000 people, nearly doubling. Some statistics show that by the 2020 census, the Lake Nona area population could be as high as 75,000, while others put the figure more or less around 100,000 strong, with the latter statistic becoming more practical due to the fact that there are nearly 20,000 homes under construction or planned in the Lake Nona area.[1][2] Most of the newcomers here are very affluent and in the upper middle class, settling for the proximity to Orlando's emerging Medical City in Lake Nona. During the Puerto Rican crisis of 2015, over 15,000 Puerto Ricans called Orlando their new home while about 20% of those settled in the Lake Nona area. [3]
The following schools are in Lake Nona:
- Lake Nona High School near Laureate Park
- Lake Nona Middle School near Laureate Park
- NorthLake Park Community School
- Sun Blaze Elementary School in Randall Park
Neighborhoods
The city of Orlando has officially divided Lake Nona into four neighborhoods:
- Lake Nona Central, including VillageWalk at Lake Nona
- Lake Nona Estates, including the Lake Nona Golf & Country Club
- Lake Nona South, including the Medical City and Laureate Park residential development
- NorthLake Park at Lake Nona, which includes the separate developments of Morningside at Lake Nona and Waters Edge at Lake Nona
A fifth neighborhood, Education Village (formerly Narcoossee Groves), lies outside the original borders of Lake Nona. Lake Nona High School and Valencia Community College Lake Nona Campus campus are located here.
References
- ^ http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/brinkmann-on-business/os-developer-seeks-zoning-for-10-000-homes-near-lake-nona-20150903-post.html
- ^ http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/parents-hope-lake-nona-growth-does-not-affect-new-/nnJtX/
- ^ http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-ap-puerto-ricans-orlando-census-20150825-story.html
External links
- Official site of Lake Nona
- Florida Trend, Medical City Is Changing Florida's DNA
- Orlando Sentinel, Burnham's impact may rival Disney's in Metro Orlando
- U.S. News & World Report, Planning a Move? Look for These 4 Features That Make a Healthy Neighborhood
- Orlando Business Journal, Biotech boom: Lake Nona’s medical city ready to grow
- Orlando Sentinel, Medical City at Lake Nona a booster shot for tourism