The first line toward future development at Walden Lake was crossed this week as the old clubhouse was finally demolished.
In its heyday, the country club was a shining gem in the community. The building was always full of life as people gathered for dinners, brunches, weddings, banquets, photo-ops and more.
It’s been a vacant shell for years.
Plagued with squatters and trespassing issues, the old building became a picture straight out of a horror film. Boarded windows, cracked walls, worn banisters and algae-covered stones were everywhere you turned. Furniture was strewn about the abandoned rooms and spilled over into some of the hallways. Things had been left behind, abandoned to rot in the two-story tomb. Adjacent to the clubhouse is the community’s pool, which at one point turned green with algae.
Together they were a monument of shattered dreams and mismanaged potential. With the clubhouse’s demolition comes the start of the next chapter in the community’s book.
When Walden Lake, LLC acquired the property in March 2019, the company began to unveil a plan for the area that would rework the entire hub of the property. They asked the current residents for input and sent out a survey to determine what the priorities for the community were. The results were split.
Carmine Zayoun, co-partner of Walden Lake, LLC, has frequently said the plan is for Walden Lake to soon have a core “city center.” That area, which is around the current clubhouse and the surrounding clearing, would feature buildings with retail on the bottom and high-end apartments on the top. Those retail options would feature businesses that would hopefully make the hub a “one-stop shop,” where residents essentially would rarely have to leave Walden Lake to have access to their preferred businesses.
It would also hopefully draw outside customers in and make Walden Lake the highlight of the city once again for those who want to spend a day relaxing and having fun in a leisurely environment.
The company used examples of having stores like cafes, dog groomers and other small businesses all peppered among the retail spots. Representatives of Walden Lake, LLC said they were “very keen” on transforming the center to mimic a property Zayoun built in Orlando called Majestic at Baldwin Park.
The property is approximately 425 acres and, as far as other development goes, the plan has long been to mimic the existing areas. If they build new million-dollar homes, they will put them by the existing million-dollar homes. Condos would go by similar homes and high-end luxury homes would go by matching units. This way, the community seems to flow. They hope to “keep the community together” and allow the new development to mesh naturally with the existing one.
The exact details of the planned development have yet to be announced, but are expected to soon arise with the ball now officially rolling.