HRT for Women in Buena Ventura Lakes, FL

KISSIMMEE, Fla. —

The Orange County Sheriff's Office confirmed on Friday officials found the body of a man who went missing this week.

Osceola County deputies responded to reports of a crashed car submerged in a pond near Waters Edge Drive and Lost Creek Court in Kissimmee.

Deputies say Jose Malave Lebron, 36, was found dead inside the car.

He owned his shop where loved ones have now placed flowers and candles in a makeshift memorial.

His family members said Lebron had vanished without a trace and they had not heard from him in days.

A fellow barber and friend, Victor Manuel-Soto, had this to say about Lebron:

"There's no words to define how great of a person he was, a superhuman being," Manuel-Soto said.

Recommended

Lebron owned a Kissimmee barber shop in Buena Ventura Lakes and everyone there was treated like family.

He was well-regarded by friends, family and patrons, according to loved ones.

Friday afternoon, they all got the worst news ever — that Lebron was found dead inside his car in a retention pond on Waters Edge Drive, just minutes from his shop and his home.

Manuel-Soto says he felt very sad. It's something that he couldn't believe.

The family had just celebrated Mother's Day, and Lebron ended up going to a friend's house in Orlando, near Ward Road, at about 3 a.m., driving his black Cadillac on Monday.

The family said he was apparently heading home.

Florida Highway Patrol said he was traveling on Waters Edge Drive and failed to negotiate a curve and ran off the roadway.

The car struck a utility box and went into the pond.

Lebron was trapped inside. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

"It's such a sad situation that we're going through right now," relative Marcos Ramirez said.

"How is the family coping with all of this?" WESH 2 asked.

"It's hard because my cousin, which is Jose's fiancée, she's pregnant right now," Ramirez said.

He says she's seven months pregnant.

"That's one of the things that is most shocking because Lebron was going to be a father, a person that always desired to be (a) father," Manuel-Soto said.

His family says he was also a loving son, brother and entrepreneur, and the barbershop was his dream.

"All the friends, we are going to have him in our hearts, in our spirit, because he was a good person," Manuel-Soto said. "All his family (can) count on our support just as much as he supported us."

Now as to when this all happened, the specific date and time of the crash is still under investigation.

Top stories:

Miami-based Wolfson Development Group will officially break ground next week on a pair of new purpose-built rental communities on two of the last tracts of the former Buenaventura Lakes golf course.

The firm, founded by CEO Adam Wolfson, specializes in Build-to-Rent communities and plans a total of 214 townhomes across the sister communities, Encanto and Isla.

Wolfson is partnering with Paragon Group, which acquired the parcels in 2018 and 2021 for a combined $2.2 million.

“To be honest, I had been looking around the Encanto-Isla area and that golf course for a very long time, and I was hoping to find something,” he said. “And it was happenstance that our general contractor, First Florida, was working with a guy who was under contract for the Encanto site and owned the Isla site outright.”

Paragon had initially secured entitlements for a 150-unit apartment complex on the Encanto site.

“They were looking to do that as apartments, and at some point, the guys at First Florida put us together with Paragon, and we said let’s just do this as townhomes. And we ran really quickly on it. When they showed us the site, we already knew the site because I’d already looked at the whole golf course before. I love this area. It’s only going to go up because it has a tremendous need for housing.”

The new partners revised the BVL Planned Development in 2021 to convert the multifamily entitlements to townhomes. The apartment buildings would have been three stories, but the townhouses will have a maximum height of 27 feet 8 inches. Amenities include a resident clubhouse and fitness center, along with a business center, resort-style pool, playground and tranquility garden.

The Isla neighborhood is approved for 64 townhomes designed around a central walkway. The 11-acre site had been deeded by the county to the Boys & Girls Club of Central Florida and was entitled for a community center. In 2016, Osceola County had set in motion plans to buy the land for an affordable housing community but backed out after public opposition.

Wolfson said the Isla residents will have full access to the amenities at the Encanto site. “We like to put full amenities in to really give folks the same sort of feel that if you were in a two-bedroom apartment, you know in a garden-style that had amenities it should feel to you similarly to living in that community in the sense that it’s programmed, that there are happenings going on at the clubhouse that there’s a sort of central meeting place and that there’s amenities for you, your family, your guests to enjoy.”

He said the initial site development has already begun, and the first units will deliver before the end of the year.

In 2022, the Osceola County Council on Aging secured gap financing from the county to begin construction on 60 units of affordable senior housing on 6.6 acres of former BVL golf course property on Competition Drive.

Wolfson currently has active projects in Bradenton and Royal Oak, Michigan, and a total pipeline of 2,050 units across four active developments, including Encanto Isla, and others in redevelopment. He’s also looking to expand his portfolio in Central Florida.

“We are tracking actively a number of things in Orlando with offers that we put out,” he said.

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.

According to a real estate study, Kissimmee is last when it comes to available affordable housing in the Central Florida area.

The grim statistic could be attributed to wages failing to match the cost of living and new construction not addressing the need in the area, according to Rev. Mary Downey, CEO of Hope Partnership.

The Orlando Metro Affordability Report for July 2023, released by RealtyHop, showed that Kissimmee households spend 43.25 percent of their income on mortgage and property tax payments.

The question is — why the high number?

“This is largely due to the disconnect between lower income and high real estate values. Over 20 percent of the population in Kissimmee is in poverty, but the city’s proximity to Orlando and major resorts (therefore job opportunities) makes real estate in the area more desirable for many,” said RealtyHop Data Scientist Shane Lee.

The examples of need for affordable housing in Osceola County are everywhere, Downey said.

“Motels along the (U.S.) Highway corridor are filled with members of our workforce who are raising their families in 250 square-foot rooms,” added Downey, who leads Hope Partnership, an agency striving to end homelessness and poverty in Central Florida. “We serve nearly 100 individuals every week at an outreach event for people who are unsheltered; individuals and families are living out of their cars. Entire tent communities exist in wooded areas across the county, and we are receiving upwards of 1,500 calls a month for assistance at just our agency. I’m sure others are seeing the same”.

But what is the root of the problem?

“Wages are not keeping up with the cost of living: the average minimum wage worker must work 92 hours a week to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment. Our new construction is almost entirely three products: large single-family homes, luxury apartments, or short-term rental properties that serve people who are only here on vacation,” Downey said. “There is no financial incentive for developers to build multifamily apartment units, condos, ‘starter homes,’ or any of the other products that help people build a rental history or get into the housing market (a notable exception is the Teale Apartments on 192 in Kissimmee). People are relocating to this area faster than we can build new homes. Efforts to pass a renter’s bill of rights have not gained traction, and legislation to control the rising costs of housing has been overturned in Tallahassee. There is no public housing in Osceola County, so even people who move here with a valid Section 8 voucher can’t put that to use. These are a few of the many reasons why we think this is occurring in Osceola County.”

To begin remedying the problem, there needs to be “a shift in belief,” Downey noted.

“We believe that everyone deserves a safe place to call home. Too many people in our community are simply not prioritizing that belief. We need to incentivize and fast-track building projects that address the ‘missing middle’ and the lowest wage-earners. We can convert more motels into dignified apartment homes. We can revisit zoning laws that exclude innovative housing solutions and we can modify impact fees and government costs in a way that prioritizes affordable build-out first,” she added.

But some recent light did shine locally. The Osceola County Council on Aging recently announced that it was the recipient of a $5.6 million Department of Housing and Urban Development grant to construct Buen Vecino, an affordable housing complex for seniors aged 62 and up in Buenaventura Lakes.

Rent will be subsidized in 60 single-story, one-bedroom units; residents will pay no more than 30 percent of their income toward their housing payment. A communal clubhouse will house a congregate meal site to hold lunches and activities. It will include an on-site social worker to help maintain residents’ needs. The Council on Aging was among 32 senior-serving organizations to apply for this grant – and the only one to receive it.

At the other end of the scale, Ocoee was the most affordable market in the Orlando Metro Area and has the highest median purchase price of $410,000, the study showed. Households make a median income of $92,838 and only allocate 28.79 percent of that toward homeownership costs.

“Higher than average median household income makes Ocoee the most affordable market in the Orlando Metro,” Lee said. “However, home prices have been on the rise in Ocoee and so it’s possible that housing affordability in the city will worsen and exceed the 30 percent threshold in the foreseeable future.”

So you live in Kissimmee, have already returned from family summer vacations, but have kids who have about two weeks before school starts again. They’re out of things to do, and they’re antsy.

In Buenaventura Lakes, you now have an activity to beat the heat as of Monday.

The week started with a ribbon-cutting and grand opening of El Yunque Rainforest Splash Pad, near the back of 65th Infantry Veterans Park on Astor Court, near the intersection of Florida Parkway and Poinsettia Drive.

While the city’s of Kissimmee and St. Cloud have municipal splash pads in city parks, this is the first such water feature for Osceola County.

The theme is a tropical rain forest, and its named after Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest, the only rain forest in the national forest system and well known to those from the island.

A couple of pieces are still being built and will soon be added, but the park is now open during daylight hours seven days a week.

Designed to eliminate standing water, park goers press a button near the front gate to activate the water, which will run for 30 minutes. Pressing the button again starts it back up.

The main feature is a bucket that empties about every 45 seconds, providing a refreshing waterfall to those waiting below.

The park also includes restrooms, picnic tables (at least one is covered) and benches, and a lawn for those who want to put down a blanket and catch some rays.

County Commissioner Viviana Janer, whose district 2 includes Buenaventura Lakes, said she’s been working on adding such a feature to the community since she won office in 2014.

“Kids need a place to play and cool down on these hot summer days,” she said at Monday’s unveiling. “I’m so proud that our staff, the construction team at Quinn was able to make this happen. The bucket simulates the beautiful waterfalls and greenery of El Yunque rainforest, I’m just glad our neighborhood kids can enjoy this before summer ends.”

After funds were earmarked in the budget, ground broke on this county plot about a year ago once pandemic issues started to clear, Janer said.

As part of Monday’s ribbon-cutting, the county welcomed children from the Boys and Girls Club of Buenaventura Lakes. Club officials said — in between shrieks of kids when the bucket dropped another tide of water — that the splash pad will definitely be a part of their programming next summer.

By year-end, Brooks plans to grow its Central Florida presence to 15 outpatient clinics

ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Brooks Rehabilitation continues to grow in the Orlando market to address the demand for – and to provide necessary access to – physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT) and speech-language pathology (SLP). The nonprofit will open its 12th Central Florida outpatient clinic August 23 in Horizon West at 15820 Shaddock Drive, Suite 110, Winter Garden, FL 34787.

Brooks is currently accepting patients at its new Horizon West clinic, located off Porter Road directly across from Orlando Health Horizon West Hospital. Patients can call 321-999-9056 or visit brooksrehab.org/horizon-west/.

Physical therapy services at Horizon West include sports medicine, orthopedic physical therapy, post-operative physical therapy, geriatric physical therapy and worker's compensation.

"We are honored to serve the Central Florida market, including the thriving Horizon West area, to address the tremendous need for immediate access to quality outpatient services," said Tom Langer, PT, CSCS, Brooks Rehabilitation outpatient regional director, Orlando. "Across our system of care, Brooks provides the highest-level physical therapy care, some of the most advanced technologies available and the industry best patient-to-clinician ratio to provide the most positive outcomes to return our patients to the highest level of participation in life."

In addition to the team's expertise, Brooks provides innovative technologies to help patients regain function following injury, including: "HAL" (Hybrid Assistive Limb) robotic exoskeleton from Cyberdyne to assist those with traumatic spinal cord injuries to walk again; and the Smart Glove technology to allow those with catastrophic wrist and hand injuries to grasp and mobilize objects again. These are available to Brooks patients at its Osceola clinic in Kissimmee and at the Brooks Neuro Recovery Center in Jacksonville.

As part of its growth, Brooks has career opportunities for PTs, OTs, SLPs and front desk coordinators. Brooks is seeking qualified candidates to join its culture of caring and bring its mission to life.

The Horizon West clinic joins the growing number of Brooks outpatient clinics throughout the state, bringing the total number to 51. By the end of 2023, it anticipates growing its local presence in Central Florida to a total of 15 outpatient clinics. Current Central Florida locations are Winter Garden, MetroWest, Clermont, Rio Pinar, Oviedo, Winter Park, Kissimmee (2 clinics – Osceola and S. Kissimmee), Sand Lake, Poinciana and Waterford Lakes. Three more local outpatient clinics are planned in 2023, including SODO, Buena Ventura Lakes and Ocoee, with more planned at least through 2024, including exploring all sub-markets of Orlando.

In addition to the outpatient therapy clinics, the Brooks system of care includes inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, a physician practice, home health, assisted living and memory care.

About Brooks Rehabilitation

For more than 50 years, Brooks Rehabilitation, headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., has been a comprehensive source for physical rehabilitation services. As a nonprofit organization, Brooks operates one of the nation's largest inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in the U.S. with 170 beds, a second 60-bed inpatient hospital that opened in April 2022, and a Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation in partnership with Halifax Health in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Brooks also has one of the region's largest home healthcare agencies, more than 50 outpatient therapy clinics, the Brooks Rehabilitation Physician Practice, two skilled nursing facilities, assisted living and memory care. Brooks will treat more than 60,000 patients through its system of care each year. In addition, Brooks operates the Clinical Research Center, which specializes in research to advance the science of rehabilitation. Brooks also provides many low- or no-cost community programs and services to improve the quality of life for people living with physical disabilities.

For more information, visit BrooksRehab.org.

Contact:Rich Donley407-347-8458rich@crimsonagency.com

SOURCE Brooks Rehabilitation