Senior Housing Proposed for Baldwin Park

By Ken Storey
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America has an aging population. It's expected that between 2000 and 2050 the number of seniors in America will increase by 135% with those over 85 increasing by 350%. Florida will actually take a large percentage of this than other states. Florida ranked third most popular state when people age 66 and older were asked to indicate where they would choose to live if they moved. Those ages 60 and older will account for 55.2 percent of Florida's population growth over the next twenty years.

This means that we're going to see an increase in the number of senior living centers around the state. Here in Orlando we've already seen an uptick in the number of these facilities in the works.

In Baldwin Park in between the VA property and Lake Baldwin sits a small park and two empty lots. There's now a proposal to merge the lots into a single site and split the park into two small parks (on the eastern and western edges of the property). Each of the parks would feature a small pond and a walking path. The new development would house a three building senior living facility.

The 205 unit development called Parc at Lake Baldwin would have a four story building with 145 assisted living units, that would have seniors who are still able to take care of themselves, most of whom are able to drive, and all of which would be able to remain active in the community. The middle building would be a three story building with 40 assisted living units. While the eastern building, the one closest to the current residential properties, would be a one story 20 unit memory care facility.

There is a push to keep the current Lake Baldwin VA hospital open meaning that some of the seniors at the proposed facility would only have a short walk to visit their doctor. The Winter Park medical district is also nearby allowing for a short bus ride to all of the facilities there including the Florida Hospital Winter Park campus.

The proposed facility includes a number of upgraded features including outdoor gardens, a civic lawn, a pool, a yoga lawn, 36 garage spaces for the residents of the assisted living section, and walking paths. The memory care section would feature a 6ft tall wall surrounding most of it with the rooms looking into a garden with walking paths. A 4ft tall iron fence will surround most of the parking but plans call for shrubbery and vines that will eventually cover many of the walls and fences. The entire development is designed in what the developer calls a "Floridan residential resort community" feel.