What a year! 2017 was one for the record books. Lake Nona is officially BOOMING. We had no shortage of amazing news. With so many huge announcements it’s difficult to imagine the scope of what the Nonahood will look like in the coming years. It certainly feels like a tipping point has been reached, and things are moving forward at breakneck pace. Everywhere I look, dirt is being moved, buildings are being finished, and businesses are opening. Population density is increasing, too – some time in 2018 Nonahood News will hit a big milestone – 20,000 papers distributed each month!
When Jenny and I moved here 5 years ago we saw tremendous opportunity. There wasn’t a whole lot here yet. We loved the idea, though, and took the risk that things would turn out the way we hoped. We hoped that we would see growth and new opportunities coming to the area. We crossed our fingers that development would proceed the way we imagined, but there were no guarantees. Fast forward to today’s Lake Nona landscape, and anyone looking at Lake Nona will have a much different perspective. There’s an electricity in the air and such a flurry of development that it’s hard to keep up with everything! It puts us in a great position as we have no lack of amazing stories to tell and exciting things to talk about. We’ve got some big plans for 2018 with Nonahood News as well, but nothing we can talk about… yet.
I would also like to address something that I’ve seen popping up here and there – negativity about the pace of development. I know there will always be people who like to vocally complain about things, but I often see people respond to news of various announcements with comments like, “That’s great, but where’s our movie theater?” I understand that people want these things (we do too), but the scale of what’s happening here is massive – I think we all need to understand that certain things can’t happen until thresholds are met. If a movie theater were to have opened 2 years ago, would the population density support it? Commercial development is not a small undertaking and I would much rather see something done right than done now. So I ask this of the community: give it time – amazing things are coming!
I am proud to see Nonahood News growing along with the Nonahood. We remain dedicated to promoting the great stories, people, and businesses that we have in our backyard. As we begin 2018, I hope that everyone in the Nonahood has a happy, healthy, and fun new year. The possibilities are endless, after all. We can’t wait to see what the new year brings!
