Residents of Mission Inn's Las Colinas enjoy award-winning golf courses
 and a combination of casual elegance with world-class amenities.

Description: Live at Mission Inn's Las Colinas and you have the Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort at your fingertips. This elegant golf and marina community is set in a small rural town just 35 minutes from downtown Orlando. The 1,000-acre development is gated and features 36 holes of golf, a 200-room resort and conference center and a master plan that calls for up to 650 homes sited in a golf and marina community named after the Las Colinas course.

Awards & Honors

• Las Colinas named one of  “America’s 100 Best Master-Planned Communities," Where to Retire Magazine, 2003
• Las Colinas course nominated “Best New Resort Course,” Golf Digest, 1992
• Las Colinas named a “Top FairWays,” Golf for Women 
• El Campeon, which opened in 1926, made Links Magazine’s  “Top 100 Courses” and Golfweek’s “Top 25 Courses in Florida” lists in 2002
• Mission Inn received “Gold Tee Award,” Meetings and Conventions, 2002-2003
• Ranked among “America’s Top Golf Courses,” Zagat Survey
• Earned “Award of Excellence” Corporate and Incentive Travel Magazine,  2003
• Earned “World Class Award,” Insurance Meetings Management,  2003 

Nearest Airport: Orlando International Airport, 40-45 minutes  

The marina on Lake Harris.

Amenities

• Las Colinas, 18-hole championship course, opened in 1992
• El Campeon, 18-hole championship course, opened in 1926 
• Driving range and Golf Academy 
• Headed by Gary Anderson, who studied under Jim Suddy (pioneered swing analysis)
• Pro Shop/Clubhouse, putting green
• 6 Har-Tru tennis courts; 2 Laykold or hard-surface tennis courts
• Exercise center and heated swimming pool
• 52-slip marina on Lake Harris, Florida's fifth largest lake, access to the Atlantic
• Slips, rental boats and 49-passenger, original river party boat available
• Cruises on the 1930s-circa, 49-passenger La Reina yacht
• Restaurants (3) and lounges (2)
• Sunday champagne brunch at La Hacienda
• Prime Rib and Seafood buffet on Saturday nights at Nickers inside the clubhouse
• Golf, Tennis and/or social memberships available
• Meeting and event space, 30,000 square feet

Real Estate

·       Phase 1, Las Colinas – 119 single-family homes, 80+ sold as of Oct. 2003
o      Villa homes, from $190,000 and up
o      Club homes, from $230,000 and up
o      Fairway homes, from $300,000 and up  
o      Estate homes, from $450,000 and up

·       Phase 2, Las Colinas – Effective March 2004, 83 single-family units
o   Fairway, Club and Villa models, construction pricing ranges from $75-$90 per sq. ft.     o      Villa homes, from $190,000 to $260,000 for 1,600-2,400 square feet  
o      Club homes, from $230,000 to $300,000 for 1,800+ square feet
o      Fairway homes, from $300,000 to $450,000 for 1,850-3,600 square feet  

Resort Elegance in a Rural Atmosphere

For nearly 40 years, family-owned Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort has been a hidden jewel amongst the hustle and bustle of Greater Orlando and its many theme parks. Now you can live there in a new, gated community called Las Colinas. 

The clubhouse presides over Lake Harris.

Located in the rural town of Howey-in-the-Hills (population: 800-plus), Mission Inn's Las Colinas offers a unique blend of casual elegance and world-class amenities and service–all in a quaint countryside community once dubbed the Florida Alps.  

From the first-class, champagne brunch at La Hacienda restaurant, championship golf at the resort’s two courses, or something as simple as a sunset cruise on one of Florida’s largest lakes, Mission Inn has always been a wonderful destination. And you can enjoy it every day at Las Colinas.

The dining room.

And for those in need of the big city and all its trappings, Las Colinas is an easy 40-minute drive to the heart of Orlando and its wealth of shopping, dining and entertainment.  

Mission Inn offers two championship courses.

This unique blend of convenience and country living is what makes Mission Inn’s Las Colinas one of the more sought after real estate finds in Central Florida.

Real Estate Phase Begins
The Beucher family, which upgraded the golf course and clubhouse when it first bought the property in 1969, now has a new vision: to create one of the finest golf- and marina-resort communities in America. The master plan, which centers around Mission Inn’s Gary Koch-designed Las Colinas course, is being overseen by Beucher son-in-law Tom Line.  

 
Sample home featuring its own swimming pool.

“We’re not competing with the active adult communities,” said Line, who is just now moving into Phase 2 of the build-out. “We’re building a golf-marina community of single-family homes. It’ll be a cross section of working people with kids, empty nesters, some retirees and people with second homes.”  

Phase 2 of Las Colinas, which means “The Hills” in Spanish, features Spanish Colonial-style architecture on Villa units starting at $190,000 for homes, ranging from 1,600 to 2,400 square feet in size.  

     
Fairway home.

Club homes, sized from 1,850-2,600 square feet, are being priced at $240,000 to $300,000, while Fairway units, starting at 2,600 square feet on quarter-acre lots, are selling for $300,000 to $400,000.

Phase 2 is planned for 83 units. Overall, Mission Inn has room to build 850 total units and a third course.  

Estate home.

To date, Mission Inn real estate has been a strong success, says Line. In ’99, the resort sold all of its 36 upscale townhomes on the El Campeon course while they were being built; since late 2001, when Phase 1 of the Las Colinas project was launched, the company had sold 80 of its 119 single-family homes.  

Line said the area’s “mystique, country living and rolling hills” are just some of the qualities that make Mission Inn so attractive. “You don’t have the traffic and you don’t have all the shopping,” he added. “It’s just a very, very peaceful place to live.”  

El Campeon is a Links Top 100 course.

A Taste of Old Florida
One aspect that makes Las Colinas' rolling hills so special is its rich history. In other words, this isn’t a master-planned community created just a few years ago.

The story of Howey-in-the-Hills and its signature resident actually dates to the early 1900s, when Florida’s citrus industry was in its infancy. It was around this time when Illinois native William John Howey purchased 60,000 acres of prime Central Florida land that would later bear his name.

Old-Florida style.

After creating the world’s largest horticultural empire in 1916, Howey built the 75-room Hotel Floridan, so visiting investors would have a place to stay. Two years later, acclaimed Scottish architect Charles E. Clarke, he of the famous Troon Golf Course in Scotland, was enlisted to build what is now El Campeon, and the roots of Mission Inn had been laid.

But the ensuing Great Depression and one of the worst freezes in Florida’s history ended Howey’s citrus dreams, ultimately resulting in the 1964 sale of Florida Country Club to Nick Beucher, whose family still owns the resort and has recently embarked on the new vision of Las Colinas.