Orlando’s first master-planned agrihood is placing a working farm, community gardens and locally grown food at the center of neighborhood life.
By Joseph Maguire | Extended Reach USA
Before many of its future residents have unpacked a single moving box, The Grow has already produced its first harvest.
After months of preparing the soil and testing crops, the farm team at the new East Orlando community began harvesting produce during the summer of 2026. Much of that early bounty was donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida as the farm prepared for future resident programs, farm-share memberships and public sales.
It was a fitting beginning for a community designed around a simple but increasingly uncommon idea: food should not merely arrive in the neighborhood inside a delivery truck. It can be grown there, shared there and used to bring the people living around it together.
The Grow is being developed as Orlando’s first master-planned “agrihood”—a residential community in which agriculture is not hidden beyond the property line but incorporated directly into the neighborhood’s identity and daily life. PulteGroup describes it as the company’s first agrihood development, built around a nine-acre professionally operated farm and more than 200 acres of preserved wetlands and conservation land.
In a region known for master-planned communities with pools, golf courses and elaborate clubhouses, The Grow is attempting to offer something different.
It is planting the community before it finishes building all the houses.
A Farm at the Center of the Plan
Located along East Colonial Drive near South Tanner Road, The Grow is taking shape across approximately 1,200 acres in northeast Orange County. Plans call for more than 2,000 residences, including townhomes, bungalows and single-family homes, together with commercial areas, preserved land and community amenities.
The defining feature is the nine-acre working farm, where seasonal vegetables, greens, herbs and flowers will be cultivated under the direction of professional farm educators.
More than 20 additional acres are expected to include community gardens and smaller pocket farms positioned throughout the development. Plans also include parks and approximately 12 miles of recreational trails, allowing the agricultural element to extend beyond one fenced-off farming area.
The idea is not to turn every homeowner into a full-time farmer.
The primary production fields will be managed professionally by Agmenity, a company specializing in community farms and agricultural amenities. Residents who want a more active role will have access to volunteer opportunities, educational programs and the Farm Club, where members can maintain personal garden plots with seeds, tools, compost and guidance supplied by the farm team.
That distinction matters. The farm is intended to operate as real agricultural infrastructure rather than a decorative patch of land added to a sales brochure.
It must grow food, respond to Florida’s heat and rainfall, manage soil conditions and adjust to changing seasons. The community’s first plantings have already served as a testing ground for future production, yielding baby greens, leafy vegetables, root crops, herbs, flowers and warm-weather vegetables.
Turning an Amenity Into Participation
Traditional residential amenities are generally built for consumption.
Residents swim in the pool, work out in the fitness center or reserve the clubhouse. The relationship is largely passive: the amenity is provided, and the resident uses it.
The Grow is attempting to create something more participatory.
Future residents will be able to cultivate their own garden plots, attend cooking and composting classes, volunteer on the farm, participate in harvest events and receive produce through a resident farm-share program. Plans also include farm-to-table meals, educational programs for children, seasonal celebrations and guided tours of the fields, groves and gardens.
The planned Farm Stand and seasonal farmers markets will also be open to the public, creating a point of connection between The Grow and the surrounding East Orlando community. Residents are expected to receive preferred pricing, while visitors will be able to purchase produce and locally made goods directly from the development.
Other proposed gathering places include a Harvest Barn, greenhouses, an event lawn, an outdoor pizza oven, a reimagined silo bar and a Gathering Barn with a catering kitchen and indoor event space. Commercial areas for future shopping and dining are also being planned.
Together, those elements transform the farm from a private residential feature into the organizing center of the development.
The gardens are not being placed behind the houses.
The houses are being arranged around the gardens.
A Different Kind of Growth Strategy
The business case behind The Grow is just as interesting as the agricultural one.
Central Florida continues to add homes, but greater supply also means greater competition among residential communities. A pool, playground and walking trail are no longer enough to make a large development stand apart.
Homebuilders increasingly need to sell a distinct sense of place.
The Grow is positioning agriculture, wellness and human connection as part of that identity. Its farmhouse-inspired architecture supports the theme, but the concept goes deeper than appearance. The real product is a lifestyle in which residents can see where some of their food comes from, meet neighbors while tending a garden and participate in traditions tied to the changing seasons.
That could prove especially attractive in a market where rapid expansion sometimes produces neighborhoods that feel completed physically before they have developed any real community character.
The Grow is trying to reverse that sequence.
By beginning with the farm, the gardens and shared gathering places, the development is establishing a story that future residents can enter rather than asking them to create one from scratch.
Connected to Orlando, but Closer to the Land
The community’s location is also central to its appeal.
The Grow sits along State Road 50 with access to State Road 408, placing it near the University of Central Florida, Central Florida Research Park, Waterford Lakes and other major East Orlando employment and activity centers. That allows the project to offer a rural-influenced lifestyle without requiring residents to live far beyond the region’s established economic corridors.
This is not a return to isolated country living. It is an effort to carry some of the country’s strongest qualities—open space, local food, seasonal traditions and a closer relationship with the land—into a modern mixed-use development. The result could become an important model for other Florida builders.
Not every new neighborhood needs a golf course. Not every amenity needs to revolve around entertainment. And not every piece of valuable land needs to be measured only by the number of rooftops it can hold.
The Bottom Line: Growth Starts From The Roots
In the most basic sense, this is how communities used to function, working together to provide a harvest. It provides connectivity and connection. At The Grow, some of that value will be measured in gardens, harvests, shared meals, and the relationships formed between them. While most communities begin with construction. This one is beginning with cultivation. And honestly, this is exactly what’s missing in society. Kudos to the master planners behind this concept.
