If you drive west on Hartwood Marsh Road from Avalon Road, the nurseries and horse pastures start to give way to new streets. That stretch sits right on the line between Lake and Orange counties, a few minutes from Horizon West and a short hop from Clermont. That’s where Esplanade at McKinnon Groves is taking shape. It’s a gated community with a Winter Garden mailing address and a lot of room to grow.
We’ve followed this corner of the map for years, and it has changed fast. So in this post we’ll cover what daily life looks like from here, what the community is planned to include, the homes themselves, and where pricing stood in September 2026.
Where Esplanade at McKinnon Groves Sits
The community covers about 358 acres in unincorporated Lake County, inside the area the county calls Wellness Way. The first phase starts at Hartwood Marsh Road and works south toward Phil C. Peters Road (CR 378). Even though the land is in Lake County, the mailing address is Winter Garden 34787, and most of the shopping and dining you’ll use day to day is on the Orange County side.
If you live here, a few roads do most of the work:
- Hartwood Marsh Road runs east to Avalon Road and west toward US 27 in Clermont. We wrote about another community going up along Hartwood Marsh Road near Hancock Road back when this area was mostly groves.
- Avalon Road (CR 545) runs north and south along the western edge of Horizon West. It’s your route toward Hamlin, Winter Garden Village, and the new hospital at Porter Road.
- SR 429 is the toll road most people here use to reach Apopka, Disney, and I-4.
- US 27 is the main road into Clermont to the west.
There is also a road project to keep an eye on. The Central Florida Expressway Authority is building the Lake-Orange Expressway (SR 516) to connect US 27 and SR 429 south of here. CFX expects part of it to open around spring 2027 and the full road around early 2029. Those dates are estimates and can move.
Daily Life Around Hartwood Marsh Road
The drive times below come from a routing tool with no traffic, so treat them as rough. Rush hour on Avalon Road and SR 429 will add time. Still, they give you a good feel for how close everything is.
| Destination | About how far by car (no traffic) |
|---|---|
| Hamlin Town Center | 13 minutes (about 6 miles) |
| Winter Garden Village | 14 minutes (about 6 miles) |
| AdventHealth Winter Garden | 14 minutes |
| Downtown Winter Garden (Plant Street) | 17 minutes (about 7.6 miles) |
| Orlando Health South Lake Hospital | 19 minutes |
| Downtown Clermont | 20 minutes |
| Southern Hill Farms | 21 minutes |
| Lake Louisa State Park | 29 minutes |
| Magic Kingdom | roughly 35 to 40 minutes |
Hamlin is the closest place for groceries and a meal out. Hamlin Town Center has a Publix, restaurants, and shops, and it keeps adding more. If you want to see how much building is going on around it, our post on Hickory Nut Estates in Horizon West covers one of the larger-lot plans nearby.
Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves handles the big errands, with big box stores and chain restaurants. AdventHealth Winter Garden is in the same area.
Downtown Winter Garden is our favorite reason to drive a little farther. Plant Street has the Garden Theatre, local restaurants, and the Saturday farmers market. The West Orange Trail runs right through downtown, and you can find trailheads on the Orange County trails page.
Clermont is about 20 minutes west. You get the hills, the Clermont waterfront, and Orlando Health South Lake Hospital. Southern Hill Farms is one of our family’s regular stops for u-pick berries and sunflowers. The farm’s fall festival is scheduled for September 26 through November 22, 2026. Go early on weekends.
Outdoors, Johns Lake sits a short drive north, and Lake Louisa State Park has paddling, trails, and cabins about half an hour away.
The Bigger Picture: Wellness Way
Wellness Way is a large planning area in southeast Lake County, roughly 15,000 acres, set aside for a mix of homes, jobs, and town centers. For a long time most of it was groves and pasture. Now the site plans are coming in fast. We’ve covered a large community planned on Hancock Road, another 948 homes planned just across the county line, and the front porch homes planned within Clermont’s Olympus project, which also calls for a sports campus and town center with no firm timeline yet.
If you’re buying out here, that cuts both ways. Over time you’ll get more shopping and services closer to home. You’ll also live with more construction traffic for a while. We think it’s worth knowing both before you pick a lot.
The Community
Lake County approved the planned unit development for this land in 2021. The plan calls for 658 homes in four phases, and the first phase is about 266 homes. The community is gated and open to all ages, so it isn’t age-restricted.
The amenity plan centers on a clubhouse called The Venue. As of September 2026, all of the items below were listed as planned or coming soon. We couldn’t confirm that any of them are open yet. Ask us for the current status before you count on them.
Planned at The Venue
- Fitness center and movement studio
- Treatment room and flex lifestyle rooms
- Terrace
Planned outdoor amenities
- Resort-style pool with spa and cabanas
- Bahama Bar
- Fireside seating
- Flex lawn and yoga lawn
- Pickleball, tennis, and bocce courts
- Bark park, rose garden, and nature play space
- Trailhead connecting to walking and equestrian trails
The plans also mention a lifestyle concierge and community events. Those are details we’d want to see in person once the clubhouse is running.
The Homes
There are four home collections, and the range is wide:
- Garden Villas are the smallest plans. The smallest starts at 1,515 square feet.
- 50′ Collection homes sit on 50-foot homesites.
- 60′ Collection homes sit on 60-foot homesites.
- 60′ Adventure Series homes are the largest plans, also on 60-foot homesites.
Across all four collections, plans run from about 1,515 to 4,591 square feet, with 2 to 6 bedrooms, 2 to 7 bathrooms, and 2 or 3 car garages. You can find both single-story and two-story plans. The top end has grown since earlier this year, when the largest plan listed was about 4,009 square feet.
If you need a home soon, there were 18 move-in ready or nearly finished homes listed in late September 2026. Their estimated completion dates ran from the end of September through the end of December 2026. Build dates slip often in new construction, so treat those as targets, not promises. Fill out the form below and we’ll send you the current list with lot details.
Schools
Because the community is in Lake County, it is served by Lake County Schools, not Orange County Public Schools. When we checked the district’s attendance zone map in September 2026, the community area was zoned for:
- Lost Lake Elementary (about 16 minutes by car)
- Windy Hill Middle (about 13 minutes)
- East Ridge High (about 18 minutes)
Zones can change as new schools open. Check a specific address with the Lake County Schools locator before you decide.
Pricing
We put pricing last on purpose. It moves more than anything else here, sometimes week to week.
In September 2026, base prices ran from the high $300,000s for the smallest Garden Villa plan to just over $900,000 for the largest Adventure Series plan. For comparison, the entry price was about $381,000 when we first wrote about the community in February, so the entry point has actually come down a little.
Base price is only the start. Lot premiums, options, and structural changes can add a lot. HOA dues weren’t published in a form we could confirm, so we didn’t list a number here. We can help you gather the dues, any other assessments, and the real price of a specific home side by side.
If you want the original launch details, see our earlier post, Esplanade at McKinnon Groves pricing when it was first released. If you’re comparing it with other newer communities on the Orange County side, our post on new construction in Horizon West is a good next read.
Is It a Fit?
Esplanade at McKinnon Groves makes the most sense if you want a gated community with a big amenity plan, a Winter Garden address, and quick access to both Horizon West and Clermont. It makes less sense if you need a finished clubhouse on move-in day. The same goes if you’d rather not live near active construction for the next few years. Look at the Lake County schools and the Lake County tax bill too. A lot of buyers assume a Winter Garden address means Orange County, and here it doesn’t.
We’re happy to walk you through the plans, the lots, and the numbers, and we can set up a tour for you. Fill out the form below and we’ll send you current pricing, available homes, and fee details.
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