When our friend Andy Odenbach, former President of Lake Nona Realty at Tavistock, invited us to tour Lake Nona, a 10,000 acre mixed-use planned community in Orlando, I expected to be inundated with Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando. What I found, instead, was a sophisticated display of Carlos Moreno’s “15-minute city”, an urban planning model idea from 2016.

Truly, a 15-minute bike ride from Boxi Park and Lake Nona Town Center gets you to the U.S. Tennis Association National Campus, KPMG Lakehouse - a $430M corporate training campus, Laureate Park Aquatic Center, Laureate Park Elementary School, Nona Adventure Park, and a multitude of neighborhoods. Adjacent to the Town Center is Nemours Children’s Hospital, Lake Nona Medical City (30,000 employees), University of Central Florida Hospital, VA Medical Center, and University of Florida Research & Academic Center.

In my observation, there are three key clustering components that make Lake Nona a city of tomorrow, today:

• Family-Centric:Lake Nona is tailor-made for families. Good public schools within walking and biking distance from home. While academics are a priority, so is having fun as evident in the plethora of family-focused places like the aquatic center.

• Health & Wellness: The layout of Lake Nona favors an active outdoor lifestyle. People out walking, cycling, jogging, swimming, playing tennis, and interacting with neighbors.

• Innovation/Knowledge Creation: No better way to describe this cluster except by an example. Lilium is one of the key employers at Lake Nona. A German aviation company, Lilium is working on building a 6-seater electric air taxi capable of vertical take-off and landing. Lilium has located its first U.S. “vertiport” hub at Lake Nona. Add Cisco, GE, Hitachi, Signet, Siemens, and others and Lake Nona offers a strong concentration of occupations in medical, technology, and professional business services.

Here are some intriguing statistics about Lake Nona: 41% Hispanic and 59% Non-Hispanic residents, $165,000 average household income versus $96,000 for Orlando, and 57% have a Bachelor’s degree or higher versus 33% for Orlando.

That translates to $445,000 median home value at Lake Nona versus $300,500 for Orlando; and average multifamily rents enjoy a 17% premium over Orlando ($2,105/unit versus $1,804/unit, respectively).

There is too much to cover with a brief post. Suffice to say, spend some time with a real estate agent at Lake Nona on your next trip to Orlando!