Baldwin Park

Baldwin Park occupies the former site of Naval Training Center Orlando, a U.S. Navy base that operated from 1968 until its closure in 1999 under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. The 1,100-acre site sat idle for several years while the City of Orlando and a redevelopment authority worked through planning. The Baldwin Park Development Company, led by the Epoch Properties team, broke ground in the early 2000s with a master plan modeled on traditional neighborhood design (TND) principles — the same urbanism philosophy behind communities like Seaside, Florida.

The first residents arrived around 2003, and the community built out steadily through the mid-2010s. The development preserved and incorporated the Navy's handsome brick buildings — the historic district along New Broad Street includes converted officers' quarters, a chapel, and administrative buildings that now house restaurants, offices, and event spaces. Baldwin Park Lake, a 170-acre lake at the community's heart, was already there; the planners oriented the entire street grid toward it.

By the early 2020s Baldwin Park had matured into one of Orlando's most desirable urban neighborhoods, with roughly 4,200 homes ranging from townhouses and cottages to large single-family homes on the lakefront. The retail village on New Broad Street — anchored by a Publix, restaurants, and boutiques — fulfilled the original vision of a walkable, self-contained neighborhood within the city.