With Lakefront Sites In Short Supply, Orlando Real Estate Developers Digging Their Own
Just like thousands of others looking for the right location within the metro Orlando housing market, Mughis Chaudhry wanted a house overlooking the water and an easy commute to his office.
Where the 36-year old differs from his Orlando counterparts is the fact that he is willing to pay nearly $600,000 for a lakefront lot — even if the lake is a fake one carved out of the ground by a developer. Residential communities have dressed up retention ponds and presented them as lakes for some time, but due to the state’s rapidly diminishing supply of waterfront property, this practice has hit new heights in Orange County.
Chaudhry, a builder himself, purchased a lot of nearly an acre in size in the new Savona luxury-home community being built on South Apopka-Vineland Road. Savona’s waterfront lots, which fetch up to nearly $900,000, appear to be the highest-priced ever in this area for homes on a manmade lake, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.
“Developers and builders can’t find any natural waterfront to build on, so their alternative now is to get the land and make their own lake,” Beverly Pindling, the Association’s president, said.
With the supply of lakefront parcels of Central Florida real estate drying up, developers are digging their own fake ones and sprucing up the land around them. Sometimes, they turn their attention to developing land on previously shunned bodies of water such as Lake Apopka. Most importantly, they add amenities to lure high-end buyers content to look out upon the water without ever dipping a toe in it.
“We have little kids, so we don’t do water sports. Our main goal was to be on the water, and with all the other amenities and the location, I think it was the best deal out there,” Chaudhry said.
Located just East of Lake Down (one of the natural Butler Chain of Lakes), Savona is not the only new high-end development planned around manmade lakes in this booming area. A few miles west, real estate developer Kevin Azzouz plans to create The Gardens at Village of Windermere, a 120-home community built around two manmade lakes on property he owns within the Chaine Du Lac gated community.
“I think there is a market for homes on manmade lakes if you create a sense of place,” said the developer, whose community will be landscaped like a botanical garden with Tuscan-style homes, with .75-acre lots offered at $600,000-800,000.
In Savona, buyers have already snatched up more than a dozen premium lots on the manmade lake. The diminishing supply of sites for Florida waterfront homes forces builders and home buyers to either dig their own lakes or consider areas they shunned in the past. Bella Collina, a project on Lake Apopka, is a prime example. Years ago, the pollution and an out-of-the-way location drew little interest. Now, multimillion-dollar homes are being constructed.
“Bella Collina is on a natural lake, but it was known as the most-polluted lake in Central Florida, so they created value by marketing it as a golf and equestrian community,” said real estate agent Mark Leongomez, who works with Savona’s developers.
Savona’s allure will be enhanced by luxury, exclusivity, security and 24-hour concierge service, said co-developer George Kalivretenos, who is also involved in The Lexington luxury condotel project in Orlando. He has purchased three separate parcels for about $10 million to develop in Savona. Kalivretenos plans to put another $4 million into the subdivision, which he describes as “a great in-town location with an estate feel.”
For a $1,400 monthly homeowner’s association fee, residents will be able to call the on-site concierge service to provide a catered dinner, take out the cleaning, make dinner reservations or arrange for their cars to be washed, waxed and detailed. Residents will live within the brick-walled compound with the only entrance and exit guarded by a 24-hour security detail. There will also be a jogging trail, tennis courts, putting green and community park area.
Fred Guitton, a Florida home loan officer currently living in Baldwin Park, bought a $500,000 Savona lot for himself, then picked up a neighboring lot for resale. He believes it’s affordable compared to most similar lakefront Florida real estate, and the fact that Swan Lake is a faux lake is not a problem for him.
“I don’t even call it a lake. It’s a retention pond. But it is water, and it means you don’t have a neighbor right behind you,” he said.
