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Esplanade at Wellen Park

Esplanade at Wellen Park is a Taylor Morrison 55-plus resort-style community under construction since 2025, planned for 877 homes within the larger Wellen Park master-planned area near Venice, anchored by a 16,000-square-foot clubhouse, a zero-entry pool, and a day spa, though without on-site golf.

Located in Venice, part of the Sarasota-Bradenton / Gulf Coast region.

  • 55+ Age-Restricted
  • Gated

Esplanade at Wellen Park is an age-restricted, 55-plus, gated community developed by Taylor Morrison within Wellen Park, one of the most significant master-planned developments in the Venice/North Port area of Sarasota County. Construction began in 2025, with plans for 877 single-family and attached homes, positioning Esplanade at Wellen Park as a genuinely resort-focused entry in Taylor Morrison’s broader Esplanade brand of active-adult communities across Florida. Marketing for the community emphasizes an "elevated resort-style living experience," reflecting the amenity package’s emphasis on wellness and leisure over the golf-centric model common to many other 55-plus communities. The community’s centerpiece is a 16,000-square-foot clubhouse anchored by a state-of-the-art fitness center, a dedicated dance studio, and a full-service day spa — a genuinely wellness-forward amenity mix distinct from the golf-and-card-room model typical of older-generation 55-plus communities. Outdoor amenities reinforce that resort orientation: a zero-entry resort-style pool with a surrounding patio and shaded cabanas gives residents an easy-access swimming experience, complemented by a poolside bar for casual socializing. Pickleball courts and a fire pit round out the outdoor amenity list, and a full-time lifestyle director organizes an active calendar of wellness programs, a wine club, and fitness classes, giving residents structured social programming from the community’s earliest phases. Notably, Esplanade at Wellen Park does not include on-site golf, a genuine point of differentiation from other Esplanade-branded and golf-centric 55-plus communities elsewhere in Florida. The community sits directly next to Myakka Pines Golf Course, a unique 27-hole course in a picturesque Sarasota County setting, giving golf-minded residents a nearby option without requiring the community itself to carry a golf-course maintenance and membership structure. Wellen Park’s broader master plan does include golf in future phases of the overall development, but that golf infrastructure is not part of Esplanade’s own footprint. HOA fees run around $1,250.85 per quarter, covering community maintenance and amenity access; buyers should confirm the current assessment directly, since fee levels commonly shift as a still-selling community completes its remaining amenity phases. A Community Development District is common across the broader Wellen Park master-planned area, and buyers should independently verify Esplanade’s own specific CDD status and any associated assessment against Sarasota County or CDD-district records before purchasing, since this was not independently confirmed in this research. As an actively selling, still-under-construction community, Esplanade at Wellen Park offers buyers ground-floor entry into one of the Gulf Coast’s most significant ongoing master-planned developments, with a genuinely wellness-and-lifestyle-focused amenity package distinct from the golf-first model common elsewhere. Wellen Park itself is one of the fastest-growing master-planned communities on Florida’s Gulf Coast, anchored by a downtown district built around a 80-acre lake, with restaurants, shops, and event space, plus the spring-training home of the Atlanta Braves at CoolToday Park. That surrounding infrastructure gives Esplanade residents genuine access to a walkable-adjacent town center still actively under construction alongside their own community, a meaningfully different growth trajectory than the long-settled surrounding areas typical of older 55-plus communities elsewhere in Florida. Buyers should expect ongoing construction activity both within Esplanade itself and across the broader Wellen Park development for a period of years as both continue toward full build-out, a genuine trade-off for buyers who want to be part of a major development’s ground floor rather than moving into an already fully mature community. Because Esplanade at Wellen Park began construction only in 2025, no meaningful independent resident-review base or long-term track record on HOA management, build quality, or amenity-delivery timelines yet exists; buyers should treat early marketing materials and floor-plan availability as a snapshot subject to change as the community’s phases proceed, and should confirm current details directly with Taylor Morrison’s on-site sales office rather than relying on any historical figures.

Age Restriction

Esplanade at Wellen Park is marketed as a 55-plus, age-restricted, resort-style community within the larger Wellen Park master-planned development. Important disambiguation: Taylor Morrison operates a family of similarly named "Esplanade" communities across Florida, including Esplanade Golf & Country Club at Lakewood Ranch and others; facts, pricing, and amenity details specific to those other Esplanade communities should never be attributed to Esplanade at Wellen Park. Specific governing-document language on minimum qualifying age and the standard Florida 80/20 Housing for Older Persons Act allowance was not independently confirmed and should be verified directly against the community’s governing documents.

Housing Types

  • Single-family homes
  • Attached homes
  • Multiple floor-plan collections reflecting the community’s phased 2025-forward construction
  • A genuine mix of lot sizes and configurations across the planned build-out

Pricing

Taylor Morrison began construction of Esplanade at Wellen Park in 2025, planning a total of 877 single-family and attached homes within the larger Wellen Park master-planned community in the Venice/North Port area of Sarasota County. As an actively selling, still-under-construction community, current pricing and available inventory should be confirmed directly with Taylor Morrison’s sales office, and buyers should expect pricing to shift as successive phases and amenity milestones are completed, a pattern common across Taylor Morrison’s Esplanade brand statewide.

Fees & Assessments

HOA Dues: HOA fees at Esplanade at Wellen Park are reported around $1,250.85 per quarter, covering community maintenance and amenity access. Buyers should confirm the current assessment directly, since fee levels commonly shift as a still-selling community completes its remaining amenity phases, and should ask specifically which services and amenities are bundled into that quarterly figure versus billed as separate line items, including any lifestyle-director or wellness-program costs.

CDD Assessment: A Community Development District is common across the broader Wellen Park master-planned area in which Esplanade sits; specific CDD status and assessment levels for Esplanade at Wellen Park itself were not independently confirmed in this research and should be verified directly against Sarasota County or CDD-district records before purchasing, since any CDD assessment would appear as a separate line item on the property tax bill alongside standard county and school millage and the community’s own HOA dues.

Condo Fees: Not applicable; Esplanade at Wellen Park consists of single-family and attached homes governed by the community’s HOA rather than a separate condominium association fee structure, distinct from condo-based communities elsewhere in the broader Wellen Park development.

Club/Golf Fees: Not applicable as a separate charge; the community’s lifestyle programming and clubhouse access are bundled into the standard quarterly HOA assessment rather than billed through a separate club membership fee.

Amenities

  • 16,000-square-foot clubhouse with state-of-the-art fitness center, dance studio, and day spa
  • Zero-entry resort-style pool with patio and shaded cabanas
  • Poolside bar for casual dining and socializing
  • Pickleball courts
  • Fire pit and outdoor gathering areas
  • Full-time lifestyle director organizing wellness programs, a wine club, and fitness classes

Getting Around

Healthcare: Esplanade at Wellen Park sits within the Wellen Park master-planned area near Venice and North Port, within reach of Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice and other Sarasota/Charlotte County facilities; specific drive time from the community itself was not independently confirmed in this research and should be verified directly before purchasing, particularly given the surrounding area’s continued rapid growth and the corresponding expansion of nearby medical office development.

Airport: Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and Punta Gorda Airport both sit within a reasonable regional drive of Esplanade at Wellen Park; specific mileage was not independently confirmed in this research and should be verified directly by residents who travel frequently or host visiting family, since flight options and route networks differ meaningfully between the two airports.

Similar Communities to Consider

  • Del Webb Sunchase

    Del Webb Sunchase is a newer, roughly 1,000-home, 55-plus gated community under active construction in Parrish, anchored by the Solara amenity center and priced from the $300,000s.

  • Del Webb BayView

    Del Webb BayView is a Pulte-developed, age-restricted 55-plus gated community in Parrish, one of two Del Webb communities in the area alongside the newer Del Webb Sunchase, anchored by a clubhouse with a performance theater, aerobics and dance studio, and demonstration kitchen.

  • Esplanade at Azario Lakewood Ranch

    Esplanade at Azario Lakewood Ranch is a large, actively selling, all-ages, bundled-golf Taylor Morrison community spanning the Lakewood Ranch/Parrish area, with roughly 1,450-1,512 homes and golf-deeded HOA fees of approximately $550-600-plus per month.

  • Esplanade at the Heights

    Esplanade at the Heights is a 55-plus, gated Taylor Morrison community off State Road 70 in Bradenton, largely built out by 2024 within the larger Heights master plan, with reported pricing spanning a genuinely wide $435,000-to-$2.45-million range.

  • Del Webb Lakewood Ranch

    Del Webb Lakewood Ranch is a 1,286-homesite, 55-plus gated community within the larger Lakewood Ranch master plan, anchored by a 21,000-square-foot clubhouse, six tennis courts, and eight pickleball courts, roughly 17 miles from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

  • Cresswind Lakewood Ranch

    Cresswind Lakewood Ranch is a Kolter Homes 55-plus gated community of 650 planned single-family homes across 250 acres within the Lakewood Ranch master-planned community, under construction since 2018, anchored by a 5.2-acre recreational center and Cresswind’s "Set Yourself FREE" lifestyle program.

How Venice Compares

  • Venice vs Punta Gorda for Retirement: Costs, Housing & Lifestyle Compared

    Venice and Punta Gorda are two of Southwest Florida’s oldest, most walkable small harbor and beach towns, and both carry among the highest median ages of any Florida city — but they arrive there via genuinely different paths and face different current gaps. Venice is a larger city of roughly 27,479 with a median age of 69.2 and roughly 61% of residents 65 or older, built around a historic 1920s downtown and its own full-service Sarasota Memorial hospital campus, with a fast-growing new-construction suburb, Wellen Park, a short drive inland. Punta Gorda is a smaller harbor town of roughly 20,400 with a median age of 66.3, rebuilt to stricter codes after Hurricane Charley’s direct 2004 hit and now home to a genuinely unusual asset for a town this size — its own commercial airport, Punta Gorda Airport (PGD), an Allegiant Air operational base — but as of this writing it has no operating hospital within city limits, following ShorePoint Health Punta Gorda’s permanent closure in September 2024. Choosing between them largely comes down to whether a retiree wants Venice’s own hospital and Gulf-beach access, or Punta Gorda’s in-town airport and harbor-front walkability, while accepting Punta Gorda’s current healthcare gap. Both towns also illustrate a genuinely similar civic character: each rebuilt and reinvented itself after severe hurricane damage, and each now offers a compact, walkable historic core as its defining daily-life amenity. Venice’s Harborwalk-equivalent is its tree-lined Venice Avenue and historic downtown; Punta Gorda’s is its 2.5-3-mile Harborwalk and the broader 26-mile Punta Gorda Pathways system. The core practical difference for a retiree is healthcare access: Venice secured its own dedicated Sarasota Memorial hospital campus in 2021, while Punta Gorda lost its only hospital in 2024 and, as of this research, has no confirmed replacement open yet, leaning instead on neighboring Port Charlotte’s two hospitals.

  • Venice vs Englewood for Retirement: Two Quiet Sarasota-Area Gulf Towns Compared

    Venice and Englewood sit along the same stretch of Sarasota County’s southern Gulf Coast, and both are genuinely quieter, more retirement-oriented alternatives to Sarasota proper — but the resemblance only goes so far. Venice is an incorporated city with a historic, John Nolen-planned downtown, its own Sarasota Memorial hospital campus, and a fast-growing new-construction suburb (Wellen Park) inside its own boundary, giving it real institutional infrastructure most small coastal towns lack. Englewood is an unincorporated community spanning both Sarasota and Charlotte counties, with no city government of its own, a smaller historic village core (Olde Englewood Village), and an even higher median age and 65-plus share than Venice — among the oldest population profiles of any community in the region. Both towns offer relatively uncrowded Gulf beaches compared to more built-up barrier islands, both carry significant, demonstrated hurricane exposure, and both are considerably quieter than Sarasota or Naples. The practical choice between them tends to come down to how much a buyer values Venice’s greater institutional scale — its own hospital, a larger downtown, and Wellen Park’s new-construction options — against Englewood’s smaller scale, two-county governance, and slightly lower price point. Neither is a nightlife or big-city destination; both are built for residents who want a slower pace, direct beach access, and a strong sense of small-town identity, just at two different scales of infrastructure.

Guides Worth Reading Before You Buy

  • Is 55+ Community Living Actually Right for You?

    A lifestyle-fit guide, not a fee guide — this covers whether age-restricted living actually matches how a specific retiree wants to spend their days, how to genuinely test that fit before buying, and the real tradeoffs of choosing age segregation over an age-mixed neighborhood.

  • HOA Fees and Governance in Florida

    A statewide explainer on how Florida homeowners associations and condominium associations are legally structured, funded, and regulated, and what buyers are entitled to review before closing.

  • Community Development District (CDD) Fees in Florida

    A Community Development District (CDD) is a Florida unit of local government, created under Chapter 190, financing a development’s roads, utilities, and amenities through bond and O&M assessments billed with property taxes.

Sources

Last reviewed 2026-09-28.

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