Lake Nona's Medical City opens new stage of development with town center

Lake Nona's Medical City is embarking on its next stage of development an ambitious lineup of office, hotel and retail buildings that will support the community's medical school, hospitals and research centers.

The Tavistock Group, which is developing Lake Nona, expects to start work on the first phase of its town center in May, with completion by mid-2015. More than $150 million worth of construction will be underway on the project, which is near the University of Central Florida's College of Medicine.

The town center will include a hotel, office building, restaurants and parking garage. An apartment complex is planned, too. But the office space won't be limited to health care. Pushing beyond the Medical City label, developers are open to leasing space to technology companies and other non-medical businesses.

The commercial boom has been long awaited at Lake Nona and its budding Medical City. The project captured national headlines in 2006 when it landed what is now the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. UCF built its medical school there, and the Nemours Children's Hospital opened in 2012.

Construction delays have stymied its biggest anchor, however the $656 million VA Medical Center, which is two years behind schedule and is expected to open next spring.

While the gleaming medical centers have risen at Lake Nona, services to support them have been slower in coming. Researchers at Sanford-Burnham, for instance, would have to drive four or five miles for a sub sandwich.

"I look at the cup as half full. It's a shame the VA is late because there's so many people in need," said Jim Zboril, president of Lake Nona Properties Holdings. "For us, though, the delays have let us get our housing program into full swing and get all of our builders more ready for this activity."

Lake Nona ended last year with by far the largest number of single-family housing starts in the four-county Metro Orlando area 441 for the fourth quarter, according to MetroStudy. The next busiest project, Sawgrass Plantation in Orange County, had fewer than half that number.

New apartments have emerged as well. Developers last year completed the $40 million Watermark apartments, with 278 units. In May, contractors will start on a 300-unit apartment complex next to the initial phase of the town center at Tavistock Lakes and Lake Nona boulevards.

The city of Orlando is reviewing plans for the town center, and the project is on track to get started in about two months, Zboril said. Anchoring the initial phase will be a long-discussed 200-room hotel building that will house both a Marriott Residence Inn and a Courtyard by Marriott.

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Lake Nona's Medical City opens new stage of development with town center