The Orlando Economic Partnership welcomes Avalon Park Group to the Partner level of investment.
Avalon Park Group was founded in 1995 by Beat Kahli, a Swiss national investment banker with more than 30 years of international finance and business experience. Guided by the philosophy of only investing in companies led by individuals who share his entrepreneurial vision, his mission is to change the way the world lives, learns, works and plays by creating healthy sustainable communities.
Avalon Park Group is a uniquely diversified family of companies engaged in businesses ranging from master-planned community development to home-building, mining, geographical information systems and property management in Florida, Texas and Switzerland. With more than $1 billion in total assets, Avalon Park Group focuses on real estate development and is a leading proponent of the New Urbanism approach in community planning.
“Our tagline is Live, Learn, Work and Play and we want to families to be able to do all of that in the same area,” says Stephanie Lerret, SVP Marketing & Community Relations at Avalon Park Group.
“Building traditional towns with a town center and mix of residential helps with so many problems like traffic and safety. It’s smart growth that also has a traditional feel to it.”
Stephanie Lerret, SVP Marketing & Community Relations, Avalon Park Group
The company’s mixed-use master planned communities include Avalon Park Orlando, an 1,860-acre neighborhood located in southeast Orange County and nestled beside the Econlockhatchee River, Avalon Park West in Wesley Chapel, Fla., Avalon Park Tavares in Lake County, Fla., and Avalon Park Daytona Beach, which is still under design and will be twice the size of Avalon Park Orlando. Each combines traditional-style architecture with a walkable community to improve the quality of life for residents and reduce environmental impact. The result is carefully blended residential, retail, office, park, recreation and school components in a form that establishes a sense of place for its residents.
“Our primary function is building a town,” Lerret says. “In order to do that you have to get into other lines of business.
Avalon Park Group’s portfolio of buildings is vast in scale and design. Downtowns at the heart of each community offer the convenience of necessities such as retail, dining, daycare, schools and medical services all within a short distance of home.
“I’m from a small town in Kansas and Avalon Park reminds me of the small town I grew up in,” Lerret says. “Orlando is growing so quickly, and a lot of people are moving from small towns up north. They find a sense of place and familiarity that comes with living in one of our communities. You can really be a part of something.”
“It’s a small town feel in the middle of a big city.”
Stephanie Lerret, SVP Marketing & Community Relations, Avalon Park Group
Its newest development is Marketplace at Avalon Park, a food hall, commissary kitchen, live entertainment and event space, general store, bar and gathering kitchen located on the first floor of the Avalon Innovation Center. The four-story, mixed use building is also home to a dedicated co-working space with an international business incubator called The 5th Floor, whose flagship location is in Switzerland.
“If someone wants to expand to the US, they’re able to do that there to have global connectivity and connections to grow and expand,” Lerret says.
The plan is to open these combination co-working spaces and business incubators in each Avalon Park community, further building upon the Group’s mission to change the way its residents live, work, learn and play.
“Our demographic is primarily young families,” Lerret says. “This gives residents the opportunity to drop their young children off at a daycare or YMCA in one of our neighborhoods and use an office to get work done knowing their child is right downstairs or down the street. It allows everyone in the community to be able to work. We really build small towns and every component thereof.”
Thank you to Avalon Park Group for its investment in the economic and community development efforts of the Orlando Economic Partnership and its support for promoting broad-based prosperity™ for the region.
