HRT for Women in Baldwin Park, FL

Orlando developer John Builder III is partnering with Woodlands Residential, led by Wood Partners founder Leonard Wood Sr., to develop the 231-unit Woodlands at Baldwin Park apartment community on Sasoon Avenue.

Wood told GrowthSpotter the two have longstanding family ties dating back to early in his career at Trammell Crow Residential, where he is still a member of the board. TCR will serve as general contractor for the project.

“It’s exciting because when I started with Trammell Crow in 1982, I lived in Orlando and had my first projects there in Central Florida. So it’s interesting to be coming full circle,” Wood said.

The partners have applied for annexation into the City of Orlando for 8.5 acres of undeveloped land that abuts the Cady Way Trail. Builder is calling the project Woodlands at Baldwin Park, and they’re planning a mix of three-story garden-style apartment buildings and rental townhomes.

Wood said the greater Winter Park/Baldwin Park area is underserved for housing, especially attainable housing. “And it’s not a terribly high-density project. It is multifamily, but it’s not midrise or anything like that. I think it’s just the type of project that’s needed, and it’s somewhat more affordable to build.”

The application, which goes before Orlando’s Municipal Planning Board in July, also assigns a RES-MED future land use and PD zoning for the parcel. Portions of Moosh Avenue and Sevas Street, which were platted but never constructed, would be abandoned as part of the development plan. Builder engaged Kimley-Horn’s Brooks Stickler for the civil and landscape plans and to lead the project through the annexation and entitlements.

The site plan shows three 3-story, garden-style apartment buildings overlooking a central pond and swimming pool. The development matrix includes 11 studios, 117 one-bedroom units, 80 two-bedroom units and 3 three-bedroom units.

A series of four townhouse buildings, each with five units, would face Sasoon Avenue. The townhomes would have a rear-loaded, one-car garage.

“What we wanted to do, of course, was to put as pleasant a façade on Sasoon as possible so that people living on that street and driving would get a nice looking house to look at, and they don’t have to look at cars in the driveway,” Wood said.

Builder said the design of the buildings was intended to be consistent with the Baldwin Planned Development.

“When it came to the architectural aesthetic we told [Charlan Brock Architects] we want that sort of Old Florida architecture that’s consistent with Baldwin Park so it feels like you’re connected there,” he said in an earlier interview.

The developer will connect the site to city sewer and build a lift station at the southern property line. The plan also shows a connection to the Cady Way Trail in the southeast corner of the site.

Wood said the trail access will make Woodlands a desirable location. “In Atlanta the Beltline, which is our equivalent of the Cady Way Trail, is very important as the city grows and people need still need a place to walk and ride their bikes and that sort of thing,” he said. “And it has been a huge asset to the city and to the people that live near it and are able to continuously use it.”

They’re still working with the design team from Charlan Brock Architects on the amenities. The clubhouse, fitness center and leasing office will be incorporated into the largest of the three apartment buildings.

The densely forested site contains some wetlands but could be developed if Palmetto purchases mitigation bank credits, according to a report by Thomson Environmental Consulting.

The Baldwin Park area has drawn several new multifamily projects in the last year. Gables Residential is building a 222-unit infill community at 1801 Prospect Ave., next door to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol office and across Lakemont Avenue from the Baldwin Harbor apartments in the Village Center.

Nearby on 2420 S. Lakemont Ave., a joint venture between Parkway Property Investments and TriGate Securities has filed plans for a 305-unit multifamily building just north of Blue Jacket Park, which bisects the Baldwin Park master-planned community. The project is slated on rise on what’s now a parking lot for the Baldwin Point office building, which the partners bought last year for $35.5 million.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261, or tweet me at @LKinslerOGrowth. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

For Mark Jones, the recent $2.95 million sale of a Baldwin Park home that set a new high-water mark for the trendy neighborhood is more than just a feather in the cap for LRK, the architecture and design firm where he is a principal and which designed the home.

Rather, because he and his firm serve as town architect for the 1,093-acre community, the sale — and other recent sales like it topping $2.5 million — represents a proof of concept for the development, which opened in 2003 and is celebrating two decades this year.

"That's where the proof is — the proof is that people want to be there. People enjoy living there and raising families."

Jones described the role of town architect as that of a "keeper of the vision," and it's one his firm also is responsible for in Celebration and Oakland Park — two of the region's other popular communities.

It's a role that can involve incredible attention to detail, as Jones recently told Orlando Business Journal, with otherwise unexciting details such as setbacks and porch location being crucial to everything from appearance to how neighbors will interact with one another.

"If you pull the front of the house and the porch up closer to the sidewalk ... it promotes interaction with somebody who walks down the sidewalk. However, we understand that everybody has the need for privacy and separation, so as we move the house forward, the porch and house also rise further above the sidewalk. We think through that whole process, and it really is about the relationship of the homeowner to their neighbor."

Here, OBJ caught up with Jones and discussed lessons learned from the successes of Baldwin Park over the past 20 years — as well as what it's been like to have been involved with the project since it broke ground and LRK's recent move to a downtown Orlando office space.

"That experience of being there at the beginning and then we're still doing this role today — it's almost like seeing your children grow up right and be successful."

Here's what he shared:

We had gotten some notoriety for a traditional neighborhood project in Memphis [where the firm is based] and we were getting a lot of national press in the late 1980s. In so doing, a lot of developers were showing up in town to see how we were doing it, and through that process, we connected with the Celebration development team and began working in Celebration in 1995. Typically, when we have opened new offices, it has been about being closer to our clients and our projects, so what brought us to Orlando was those developments, Celebration and then Baldwin Park.

There have been tons of people — a lot of great designers, great planners — involved in Baldwin Park. Our role was to take the work that had been done to date and translate that to the built environment and guide that process. It is how you make a place a place — it starts in the planning phase.

There was an intentional effort to look at every single lot in Baldwin Park, down to details such as "Where should the house sit? What type of house should it be? Should it have a big porch? Should the garage be on this corner?" We went through every [building] elevation at Baldwin Park that every builder put forth.

To me, the satisfaction is just the realization of that sense of community and families and how they are able to prosper. You see the results when you drive the streets and now the sidewalks are shaded, the streetscapes are there and kids walk to the schools — all of those things. Baldwin Park is probably one of the best examples in the country of traditional neighborhood development, with the way it interweaves into the existing fabric and all of those existing streets around the perimeter of Baldwin Park, feeding back into the existing neighborhood. That is what makes Baldwin Park really special.

It's the smarter way to develop and it's a more sustainable way develop. When you look at Baldwin Park, it's roughly 1,100 acres, and 400 acres of that is open space. ... I think it's a generational thing, too. My kids live in the same traditional neighborhood I live in, and my daughter didn't want to get her driver's license until she was 18, because she could walk to school and her friends.

There's a huge value in Baldwin Park to me with the town center and there's a complete mix of uses and they aren't just token uses — they're everyday needs. ... Obviously, the walkability to everyday services has got to be at the top of the list. In so many places, we struggled to get that grocery component, and with Publix stepping up and being right in the middle of it, that was such a huge advantage for that town center.

It's the community part of it — it's being part of something larger.

The diversity of the community, and I also have to tie it back to the environment. What's so great about it is you can be in a place like Baldwin Park and be 10 minutes from downtown, but you also can walk in nature.

Principal, LRK

Sign up here for our free morning and afternoon daily newsletters. And be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Architectural Firms

2022 C. Fla. architectural billings

View this list

The owners of the Baldwin Point office building that overlooks Lake Baldwin are seeking approval from the City of Orlando to build a 5-story apartment building on its enormous parking lot.

Parkway Property Investments and TriGate Securities paid $35.5 million in 2021 for the 165,000-square-foot office building at 2420 S. Lakemont Ave. despite reduced demand for office space post-COVID. At the time of the acquisition, the partners noted the potential to add infill multifamily housing on the 9-acre site made the deal especially attractive.

Now the JV has filed a master plan for the 305-unit multifamily building just north of Blue Jacket Park, which bisects the master-planned community. The building would have an attached, 6-level parking garage to accommodate both the residents and office workers.

Christopher Wang, director of investments for Parkway, told GrowthSpotter that Baldwin Point is approaching 90% occupancy, but on most days the surface parking lot is largely empty. COVID has permanently altered the office work paradigm, leaving buildings in the suburbs and downtown business districts with excess parking.

“You’re seeing a lot of office buildings that are just way overparked in terms of how many parking spaces are offered for office use,” he said. “And what you have now in a lot of suburbia is these large office properties that are just basically mostly vacant parking lots, right? And we feel like that is something that as a society and as a country we need to address, and there are ways of improving upon this status quo such that not only can we provide, in this case, a really nice brand new structured parking garage for our office tenants that shields them from the heat and the elements, like rain during the rainy season in Florida. But because of this densification, we’re also able to offer much-needed rental housing, in what we believe is one of the best neighborhoods and all of Orlando: Baldwin Park.”

The building design from Forum Architecture & Interior Design maximizes the views of Blue Jacket Park with four wings that extend south to create a primary entrance off Upper Park Road and two large amenity courtyards. The double-height clubhouse space opens up onto the pool courtyard. The central courtyard functions as the main entrance and exit to the garage, along with visitor parking and access to the leasing office. The third courtyard will house a second amenity space with landscaped gardens and sidewalks.

“We really wanted to integrate this building into the natural environment right there,” Wang said. “And we really want to make this sort of outdoors. environment as beneficial as possible for our residents, such that it really encourages them to spend time outside — whether it’s just for leisure or even for those that choose to work from home so that they can feel like they can go outdoors and feel very comfortable. So we’re going to do some really cool improvements, especially in the outdoor areas so our residents have that ability to use each of those courtyards.”

The developer collaborated with Forum to select a coastal, Nantucket-style of architecture that pays homage to Baldwin Park’s history as a former naval base. Kimley Horn served as the civil engineer and landscape architect.

“We certainly want to deliver a project that that the residents of Baldwin Park can look at and be proud of and think it’s additive to the neighborhoods. So, again, we really love the neighborhood,” Wang said.

Parkway led the development of the Lake Mary Wellness & Technology Park, an $800M mixed-use project containing Orlando Health’s Medical Campus with a 240-bed hospital, 20,000-square-foot emergency room, and a helicopter pad. The Park also includes more than 600,000 square feet of Class A office space, 190,000 square feet of medical office space, a 212-bed assisted living and memory care facility, a 120-room Hilton hotel, and 50 high-end townhomes. Parkway co-developed the Class A Helix at Lake Mary apartments, which sold last October at 98% occupancy for $125.1 million.

Parkway also broke ground in 2022 on a new 300-unit apartment community at Johns Lake Landing on State Road 50 in Clermont. Parkway consultant Rich Toomey told GrowthSpotter the first units would be available in spring 2024. The developer completed the build-out of the community by selling the remaining residential lots David Weekley Homes. The commercial lots were sold to Ashley Furniture, Rooms To Go Patio, O2B Kids Day Care and Learning Centers and Wendy’s.

Baldwin Point would be the second new apartment community added to the master-planned community, following the recently approved project from Gables Residential at 1801 Prospect Ave. That community also includes a 5-story apartment building with structured parking on property in the Village Center that was once used for a credit union.

The master plan was approved after the developer relocated the garbage collection and move-in staging area off Prospect Avenue at the request of city staff.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261, or tweet me at @byLauraKinsler. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

For fans of Phan — chef Tung Phan, that is — the wait is over.

Those who have become regulars at Phan’s DomuLab success story, Camille, will be welcomed with open arms, and eight well-appointed seats, in the French-Vietnamese restaurant’s swanky new Baldwin Park location (4962 New Broad St. at Lake Baldwin).

“The most exciting thing about moving into the new space is the ability to construct the Camille culture as a whole,” Phan told the Orlando Sentinel. “We want to do more for our guests and our team.”

READ MORE: DomuLab and Camille: Best New Restaurants in 2022 Orlando Sentinel Foodie Awards

It’s “the bigger picture,” he noted. And it certainly is bigger. The expansive, 2,500-square-foot restaurant features 30 seats. While the Chef’s Counter tasting menu will be featured in a short, first-phase period, plans for a less formal dining room experience won’t be far behind. Guests will also find a bar offering wine, sake and beer curated by an in-house sommelier, as well as a private dining room for events.

Camille, which in its pop-up phase was named the Critic’s Pick for Best New Restaurant in the 2022 Orlando Sentinel Foodie Awards, is known for its mashup of Phan’s Vietnamese background, which is both personal and professional. His first foray into the restaurant business, the now-shuttered Phan’s, (“the training-wheel days,” he calls them) showed indicators of his prevalence toward taking traditional dishes and twisting them.

At Camille, Phan’s cultivated experience with French gastronomy working alongside the masters at Victoria & Albert’s, the dishes — elegant and playful — are simultaneously comforting and familiar, but leveled up. Often dizzyingly so.

Also like Phan’s, Camille will be a family affair, with chef Phan’s sister, Trinh, embedded into the team, all of whom have enjoyed growth under the mentorship of restaurateurs Jimmy and Johnny Tung, Orlando’s most recent James Beard semifinalists.

READ MORE: Orlando’s 2023 James Beard Semifinalists

“It’s been a goal of mine to represent Orlando on the big stage,” says the chef, noting his gratitude to The Neighbors and East End Market for his ability to learn and grow in their space. “I am hoping it will open doors to growth and opportunities for myself and my team.”

Camille in Baldwin Park will be open for dinner with two seatings each evening by reservation only. June reservations are slated to be released at 6 p.m. on May 17. Cost is $180 per person.

Follow @Camille.Orl on Instagram for updates on opening dates and reservations.

Want to reach out? Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. For more fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group or follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

It’s not quite “Beard in Baldwin,” but Franco’s Flop Fest promises a good time just the same when it splashes down on Baldwin Park’s New Broad Street on May 6 from 2:00 – 6:00 p.m.

READ MORE. Best Brewery: 2023 Orlando Sentinel Foodie Awards

Hosted by Baldwin Park’s own Tactical Brewing Co. and Orlando’s most colorful ween slingers, Cholo Dogs, the event, which drew roughly 700 attendees and 20 contestants to Longwood’s Hourglass Brewing in 2022, promises to be even splashier with the debut of Flop Fest Beer in a street-party setting. The lemon-lime shandy, an event-specific release from Tactical, will be an ideal sip for ushering in Orlando’s summer season — and looks pretty snazzy in a can designed by local artist Sleds.

“We love collaborating with Tactical,” says Cholo Dogs co-owner Jordan Eichenblatt. “We did a beer with them for Cinco de Mayo last year and they did one for our hot dog eating contest, too. This one is going to be a perfect refresher in the heat.”

Towels with the same design will be available at OrlandoShirts.com for $27.

The pool, set up on a platform mid-street, will be the focal point as contestants — many of whom flop in festive costumes — line up to impress with their water displacement skills. $25 not only gets you entered, but free hot dogs and, if you’re 21+, free beer. Plus a cool T-shirt. Sign up online at cholodogs.com/events or in person. Cut-off time to enter is 1:00 p.m.

For eats beyond the Cholo Dogs’ weens, purveyors Red Panda Noodle, ATL Peach Winter and Flippin’ Delicious will be on site, as well.

The Franco’s Flop Fest winner — who will be selected by a bevy of local celebrity judges including Bungalower’s Brendan O’Connor — will enjoy spoils beyond bragging rights in the form of the Golden Luchador Mask trophy and an exclusive champion’s version of the Flop Fest towel.

More info: cholodogs.com/events

Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie or email me at amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.