11 Great Neighborhoods: Avalon Park

(ROBERTO GONZALEZ)

Imagine Mayberry meets Cheers: Tree-lined streets provide shade for people walking dogs, exercising, visiting restaurants and businesses or heading to work. Folks greet one another by first name, and smiles are in ample supply. But this is no sitcom. This is Avalon Park, an all-inclusive live-work-play community that epitomizes the New Urbanism movement. The distinctive style, introduced locally in 1994 when development began in Celebration, evokes small-town America with its welcoming front porches, businesses and restaurants within a walkable distance, and public gathering areas. Development of the 1,860-acre neighborhood off South Alafaya Trail in Orlando began in 1998. Today, the community of 12,868 features 2,447 single-family homes, 1,168 multifamily homes and 90 businesses centered on a town square, dubbed Founders Square, that serves as a lively hub for community events. The Econlockhatchee River flanks the neighborhood, which boasts three parks, ballfields, community pools and 16 miles of trails. With its median resident age of 32, the neighborhood is a haven for young families. Its three public schools—Avalon Elementary, Avalon Middle and Timber Creek High—are all A-rated, and its downtown YMCA is home to Central Florida’s largest youth sports program, according to Stephanie Lerret, Avalon Park Group public relations and marketing director. But retirees feel at home here as well. In 1999, Jim Collazo bought one of the community’s first homes. “I live right across the street from the fountain in Founders Square. I like being in the center of the action here,” he says, while eating breakfast with a friend at Nuno’s Café. Everything in the entire community is within walking or short driving distance of the downtown business district with its shops, restaurants and businesses. To cater to the work-from-home crowd, the Innovation Center hosts The 5th Floor, which offers rentable meeting and workspaces. The downtown area has thrived during the pandemic, according to Lerret, as a result of so many people working from home and needing an outlet.

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