Our focus is on sports and performance and we believe this is the first-of-its-kind performance-driven resort created from scratch in the US
– Jim Zboril

A ‘performance resort’ and spa are coming to master-planned wellness community Lake Nona, outside of Orlando, Florida, in 2020.

The Lake Nona Resort is due to break ground in 2018 and will include a 45,000sq ft spa and fitness campus with in-depth indoor and outdoor programming for all ages and levels.

Designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica, the eight-storey Lake Nona Resort will be located along the southern shore of Lake Nona, within the community’s growing sports and performance district and near the new USTA National Campus – one of the world’s largest tennis campuses, with 100 courts.

“Our focus is on sports and performance and we believe this is the first-of-its-kind performance-driven resort created from scratch in the US,” said Jim Zboril, president of Tavistock Development Company, parent company of Lake Nona. “Lake Nona has become synonymous with innovation and wellbeing, and the creation of this iconic resort highlights our dedication to building a holistic performance environment for residents, businesses and visitors.”

The resort has been inspired by Lake Nona’s mission statement "to create the ideal place that inspires human potential through innovative collaboration", offering performance and healthy living in a resort setting.

“The new Lake Nona Resort creates a gateway that announces arrival to one of the most dramatic man-made water bodies anywhere,” said Bernardo Fort-Brescia, principal of Arquitectonica. “Water and glass interact; they perform together to create an unexpected yet memorable form in the landscape of Orlando’s Lake Nona.”

Standard rooms at the resort will be oversized by approximately 450sq ft to allow extra space for stretching and fitness equipment. Television content and onsite programming and classes will be designed around performance and wellbeing, and quick-turn laundry service will be available for athletes who need immediate service.

Rooms will also feature oversized beds with mattresses designed to improve fitness, blackout shades and circadian lighting features, recovery-focused locker rooms and amenities like aromatherapy, designed to rejuvenate.

Spa consultancy WTS International has worked on the market analysis, strategic planning, programming and financial analysis for the Lake Nona Spa.

“It will be a unique journey to being well and active at work, home or play,” said Kim Matheson, senior vice president at WTS. “This will be a spa and wellness concept without borders.”

In addition to the fitness and spa campus, a children’s area will offer healthy activities and the resort will feature a 24-hour Technogym-equipped fitness facility. Trails throughout the community will be outfitted with Technogym training stations.

An on-site nutritionist will be available for guests, and customised menus will offer pre- and post-workout recommendations across the resort’s food and beverage services, which will include juice bars and sports drink stations. A garden will provide local produce for the chefs.

The resort will also include a crystal clear lagoon, designed with Miami-based Crystal Lagoons US Corp, which will encompass more than 15 acres and will be lined with sandy beaches. Guests will be able to enjoy non-motorised activities such as swimming, sailing and paddle boarding.

“The crystal lagoon creates a new geography that deserves a strong architectural response,” said Fort-Brescia. “The building folds to create four facets that sinuously undulate in concert with the lagoon’s organic edges. At its centre, the building bridges over the lagoon, forming a gateway into the long perspective of the lagoon as it fades into the horizon. The building skyline lowers at the roofline to create an open terrace overlooking the lake and the USTA tennis complex. It creates a delicate link between the two wings and frames the skies beyond.”

In addition to the USTA National Campus, Lake Nona also includes a US$400m (€339m, £303m) training and innovation centre from US audit and financial advisory firm KPMG, Johnson & Johnson's Human Performance Institute, and is home to the Lake Nona Life Project, a longitudinal health and wellbeing study.

To read more about Lake Nona and other wellness communities in the US, see CLAD's in-depth report in the latest issue.