Lake Nona, a community located within the City of Orlando, is referred to as “a community of and for the future” and it’s not hard to see why. The 10 Million square feet of commercial and residential space is being developed by the Florida-based Tavistock Group and designed with sustainability, health, and business innovation as top priorities. This appeal of the area, along with fiber infrastructure that provides super high-speed wired connectivity, has led to a population increase from 1,500 to 70,000 over the last ten years.
The Lake Nona Regional Chamber of Commerce works with Tavistock and City of Orlando to promote the region for technology innovators to base and grow their businesses in Lake Nona. When prospective additions to the business community call, the Chamber responds with an in-depth prospectus of regional opportunities and guidance for contacts and plans. This includes clean energy innovators like Lilium, who is developing sustainable, high-speed air mobility through its electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Why Lake Nona? Lillium cites the community’s design as “a higher standard of smarter, sustainable living.”
To further live up to being a smarter, more sustainable community, the Chamber supports their municipal utility‘s efforts to make Lake Nona a hub for more grounded electric vehicle innovation and has seen Orlando become a “ChargePoint America” community. That designation resulted in the installation of 200 electric vehicle charging stations, which facilitated the integration of six electric vehicles into the city fleet.
The Chamber is also working with BEEP, a local company providing an electric, autonomous vehicle shuttle service. Tavistock and BEEP launched Move Nona, an autonomous vehicle program in 2019 with an inaugural route connecting residential neighborhoods to shopping and dining district along with stops at key health services locations. The service has now expanded to four routes, running seven days a week to various parts of the community and is considered one of the largest autonomous fleets in the world within a single community.
“The Chamber is laser-focused on bringing innovative companies in high growth sectors to the area,” said Don Long, CEO/President of the Lake Nona Regional Chamber of Commerce. "What better way to do this than to offer electric shuttles and a highly developed network of charging stations?”
Lake Nona is a community truly at the forefront of transportation innovation and provides cities around the country a glimpse into what the near future may hold for the movement of people, goods, and services.
