Tucker Ranch's New Wellness Park Opens Friday. Here's What's Ready on Day One, and What the Buildings Are Still Waiting For
The gate at 100 Avalon Road is closed today, Thursday, October 22. The City of Winter Garden shut all of Tucker Ranch Park & Nature Preserve on Wednesday and Thursday, October 21 and 22, to finish construction. That includes the playground, the trails and the Johns Lake kayak launch. The park reopens Friday, October 23, at 9:30 a.m. At 10 a.m. the city cuts the ribbon on Phase II, a 25.6-acre health and wellness park and botanical garden inside the 209-acre preserve. Admission is free, and opening-day hours run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Phase II was paid for and designed as a health-programming campus, and on Friday it opens as a park first. The paths, plantings and pond are finished and free to walk. The two buildings at the center were funded and designed to host a schedule of cooking, fitness and wellness classes, and that schedule hasn't been published yet.
The city's October 2026 e-newsletter says Phase II is complete, "on time and in budget," and lists these outdoor features:
That last item matters for families who already use the park. Phase I opened in October 2018 with an entrance road, a pavilion, playground equipment, the kayak launch, nature trails and restrooms. The new section adds to that loop. Your usual morning at the playground or on the water now continues into the gardens and out onto the boardwalk on foot.
The city's facility page lists leashed pets as allowed at Tucker Ranch. Your walk works the same way it always has.
The newsletter also lists two buildings, and nothing else in Phase II says as much about the park's purpose. The Retreat Center has a 5,000-square-foot indoor venue and a screened patio. The Ranch House has a demonstration kitchen, an outdoor patio and a fireplace. A city park doesn't need a teaching kitchen unless someone plans to teach in it.
The plan behind those rooms was described in detail in 2024. The West Orange Times & Observer reported in June 2024 that classes in the kitchen pavilion would focus on healthy eating. A wellness area would host meditation, yoga, tai chi and similar programs, and the city would build on the health, nutrition and fitness programming it already runs at the Jessie Brock Community Center. The same article gave the city's targets. They're useful as a baseline for what a full year at the park was meant to look like:
| Planned in 2024 | City's projection |
|---|---|
| Health and wellness events | About 4 a year |
| Certified nutrition classes | About 16 |
| Certified fitness classes | About 16 |
| Farm-to-table classes | About 10 |
| Annual visitors | 50,000 |
| School field-trip students | Up to 20,000 |
These are 2024 projections, not a fall 2026 schedule. As of this week, the city's opening announcements cover the ribbon cutting and opening-day hours. They don't list class dates, registration links or rental rates for The Retreat Center or The Ranch House. Until those are posted, Friday is a chance to see the rooms, not to sign up for anything held in them.
The 2024 plan also called for a greenhouse, a production barn, a maintenance building and a teaching farm meant to serve as a regional food hub. The city's October 2026 amenity list doesn't mention them either way. The garden's "food" plantings are the visible link to that farm idea for now.
The buildings make more sense once you know where the money came from. The Observer reported in 2024 that a $6 million lead grant helped fund the new campus. The grant was managed by the Foundation for a Healthier West Orange and came from the West Orange Healthcare District, which has since dissolved. The district's money went to prevention, and that's why the Retreat Center and Ranch House carry so much of the design.
Foundation CEO Tracy Swanson told the Observer that the space would "help activate the Healthy West Orange movement by providing access to green spaces for community health and wellness programming," with Healthy West Orange playing "a vital role alongside many key health partners in providing education and community engagement." The partner list in that coverage includes AdventHealth, Orlando Health, Shepherd's Hope, the American Heart Association, Community Health Centers, the American Diabetes Association, UCP of Central Florida and the Mental Health Association of Central Florida.
City Manager Jon C. Williams set a high bar in the same article: "To my knowledge, there is not another project of this type in the state or even the country that incorporates all of these elements/nodes together in a natural environment." That claim depends on the programming much more than on the boardwalk. Any city can build a pond pavilion. Few run a regular calendar of nutrition and fitness classes out of a demonstration kitchen inside a nature preserve.
The total price explains why expectations run high. The Observer put the project at an estimated $32 million in June 2024. Its August 2024 groundbreaking story described the park phase as $31 million. The city says the work came in on budget but hasn't published a final figure. At the 2024 groundbreaking, the project was called "the crown jewel of our park system," and the city's newsletter still calls it a "crown jewel" today. The master plan came from 3 Fromme Design, and HDLA is the landscape architect of record.
Phase II is the latest of several lives for this shoreline on Johns Lake. The Observer's history of the property shows a pattern: each use was built for one purpose, and the next owner put the land to another.
Two conditions from the 2011 sale still shape what you'll see on Friday. The city's purchase agreement required that "Tucker" stay in the park's name and that the historic archway at the entrance stay on site. The Observer reports the archway is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Former Commissioner Bob Buchanan credited the seller at the 2024 groundbreaking: "If it wasn't for Mrs. Tucker, you wouldn't be sitting here today."
Opening day. The gate opens at 9:30 a.m. Friday, the ceremony starts at 10, and the park stays open until 6 p.m. If you'd rather walk the boardwalk without a crowd, aim for the afternoon.
Regular hours. The city has posted hours for October 23 only. The schedule printed in 2024 coverage was 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily from March through October, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from November through February. Treat that as the old schedule and check the city's site before an early-November visit, when the earlier closing time would have started.
Still to be announced. The city hasn't yet published parking for the new section, rules for bikes or alcohol, class registration, or booking details for The Retreat Center and The Ranch House. When that calendar comes out, it will show whether the buildings host the classes they were funded for.
Make an evening of it. Friday is also one of the nights for the city's Halloween Light Shows on City Hall. Animated projections play on 300 W. Plant Street from 7 to 9 p.m. on October 23, 24, 30 and 31, free. You can see the gardens by day and catch the show downtown after dinner. Our guide to downtown Winter Garden's markets, dining and the trail covers where to eat. If you'd like to compare Tucker Ranch with how Orange County is building parks a few miles south, read our look at Horizon West's newest park.
At Nectar Real Estate, we follow the places that shape daily life across Winter Garden, and Tucker Ranch now ranks near the top of that list. If you're curious how new public spaces like this one figure into what your own home is worth, Keith and Jana are happy to talk it through. Get Your Personalized Home Valuation.
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