ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – For Alex Khalil, home is at the Rio Pinar Country Club Estates neighborhood.
Khalil moved to the Rio Pinar neighborhood four years ago from Winter Park with a vision to have a home with plenty of space and a big yard.
“I wanted to get my first home that needed work. This was a 1972 house that needed a lot of TLC, and I had the tender loving care to give it,” Khalil said.
While the Rio Pinar Golf Club is just a few blocks down, it’s the scenery that captures your attention.
“You can see how it’s plenty of living room. Lots of swimming pools. So it really is kind of a lifestyle out here,” said Jim Clark, UCF professor and News 6 political analyst.
Clark and News 6′s Ezzy Castro took a stroll around the neighborhood, where he walked her through some of the history of the Rio Pinar Community.
“It’s hard to imagine, Ezzy, but 100 years ago this was cattle country. There were cows all over this area back then ... cattle ranches were here,” Clark said.
Clark said things took a turn when the golf course was established in the late ‘50s.
“When this was built was radically new and was the place to live and of course, it was out in the country. There’s nothing around here, this was before the East-West Expressway was built, so it was almost difficult to get out here,” Clark explained.
In 1960, U.S. Census data showed only 7,176 people were living in the entire east Orange County area. According to U.S. Census data, population is currently 61,755 in the 32825 ZIP code.
And the attraction and growth continues even in 2024 because on Lake Underhill Road and Pinar Drive, construction is underway for dozens of new luxury single family homes.
“You look at the development, the support development that’s out here now, AdventHealth has a big hospital just a couple of miles away, there’s shopping, almost everything you would want and it shows how this area has grown in the last 60 years,” Clark explained.
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: