The only builder on the Lake Nona list that answers to a family instead of a stock ticker — and it runs its American operation from Orlando.
Mattamy Homes built four Lake Nona area neighborhoods: Nona Preserve, Randal Park, Randal Walk, and Meridian Parks. Mattamy was founded in Toronto in 1978 by Peter Gilgan, who named it after his two oldest children, Matt and Amy. It is the largest privately owned homebuilder in North America and Canada's largest residential builder, and it is not publicly traded. Mattamy's U.S. head office is in Orlando. Nona Preserve is a gated townhome community off Narcoossee Road built roughly 2006 to 2013. Randal Park was started by David Weekley Homes and M/I Homes and finished by Mattamy in 2019, after which Mattamy built the Randal Walk townhomes between 2019 and 2022. Meridian Parks, in the northeast corner of the Lake Nona area, is the ongoing project.
Every other national builder on the Lake Nona builders list files a quarterly earnings report. Lennar, Pulte, Toll Brothers, D.R. Horton, KB, Meritage, Beazer, Taylor Morrison — all public, all answerable to shareholders every ninety days. Mattamy is not. It is family controlled, privately held, and has been since Peter Gilgan built his first house in Burlington, Ontario in 1978.
The second thing worth knowing is geographic. Mattamy operates in eleven U.S. markets, and its American head office is in Orlando. That is not a detail a buyer usually cares about, but it means Lake Nona is a home market for this company rather than a division on a map, and it shows up in how long Mattamy has stuck around here — through the crash, through the recovery, and into the current build.
Which Lake Nona neighborhoods did Mattamy build?
Mattamy built four: Nona Preserve, Randal Park, Randal Walk, and Meridian Parks.
Those four span nearly twenty years and three distinct market eras. Nona Preserve went up before and through the crash. Randal Park and Randal Walk are recovery-era work. Meridian Parks is the current one and by far the largest.
| Neighborhood | Product | Mattamy's role |
|---|---|---|
| Nona Preserve | Gated townhomes, three bedrooms, roughly 1,508–1,735 sq ft, pool, fitness center, playground | Builder; built roughly 2006–2013, now resale only |
| Randal Park | Single-family; over 300 acres of preserved land, eight neighborhood parks, five-acre central park | Took over from David Weekley and M/I Homes and completed the neighborhood in 2019 |
| Randal Walk | Townhomes, four plans, all three-bed two-and-a-half bath, roughly 1,528–1,700 sq ft | Sole builder; built 2019–2022 at the entrance to Randal Park |
| Meridian Parks | Single-family and townhomes; Executive through Estate series, townhomes from roughly 1,400 sq ft | Sole builder and developer; ongoing |
Who is Mattamy, and why is a Canadian builder in Lake Nona?
Mattamy was founded in Toronto in 1978 by Peter Gilgan, and its U.S. head office is in Orlando — so Lake Nona is a home market, not an outpost.
Gilgan was an accountant before he was a builder. He put up one house in Burlington, Ontario in 1978 and named the company after his two oldest children, Matt and Amy. Nearly fifty years later Mattamy has delivered more than 135,000 homes, builds across the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton in Canada, and operates in eleven U.S. markets, most of them in Florida.
Gilgan was drawn to the New Urbanism movement, and if you have walked Randal Park or Randal Walk you have seen the result: front porches facing the street, garages pushed to rear alleys, parks doing the work that a clubhouse does elsewhere. That is a design philosophy, not a Lake Nona accident, and it is the most reliable way to spot Mattamy's work here.
Does private ownership actually matter to a buyer?
Sometimes, and mostly in how a builder behaves at the end of a cycle rather than in the quality of any individual house.
A public builder under pressure to hit a quarterly delivery number has a reason to push closings, discount inventory hard in a soft quarter, or exit a market that is not performing. A private builder answering to one family can take a longer view, and can sit on land through a slow stretch instead of dumping it.
Be careful how much weight you put on this. It is a structural difference, not a guarantee, and it says nothing about the framing on any particular house. Private ownership also means less public disclosure — there is no annual report to read, no earnings call where an analyst asks an uncomfortable question about warranty claims. You trade one kind of transparency for another kind of patience.
Where it shows up locally is staying power. Mattamy built here before the crash, came back and finished a neighborhood somebody else had started, and is still building. Not every name on the builders list can say that.
Why does Randal Park have more than one builder?
Randal Park was started by David Weekley Homes and M/I Homes; Mattamy took over and completed the neighborhood in 2019.
So there are three builders' work inside one neighborhood. This is the second Lake Nona community in this series with a split build history — Nona Terrace is the other — and it is a pattern worth internalizing: in a neighborhood that took a decade to fill in, the builder named on a listing may not be the builder who put up that particular house. Section and year matter more than the neighborhood name.
Practically, that means when you are comparing two Randal Park homes, you may be comparing a David Weekley home against an M/I home against a Mattamy home, built at different points in the cycle, all filed under one neighborhood name. Ask which builder and which year on the specific address. The seller's disclosure and the permit record will both tell you.
Having finished Randal Park, Mattamy went on to build Randal Walk at the entrance between 2019 and 2022 — four townhome plans, all three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath, roughly 1,528 to 1,700 square feet, with a waterfront pool and playground. Sun Blaze Elementary sits directly behind it.
What is Meridian Parks, and how big will it get?
Meridian Parks is Mattamy's ongoing Lake Nona project in the northeast corner of the area, planned around art, parks and technology, and it is on track to be one of the largest neighborhoods here.
The plan calls for it to eventually house thousands of families, with single-family homes and townhomes across Mattamy's Executive through Estate series. Townhomes start around 1,400 square feet; the single-family range runs up from roughly 1,700. Innovation High School sits within the Meridian Parks area, Innovation Middle is down the street in Storey Park, and the community is expected to eventually connect toward the Sunbridge development to the east.
Mattamy markets the community around nature preserve frontage, trail access, rotating outdoor art installations, an amphitheater and a yoga lawn. Some of that is brochure language. The trails and the preserve acreage are real and are the reason to look here.
The thing to weigh honestly: a neighborhood this large, built over this many years, means buying early puts you next to construction for a long time, and it means the amenity package you are shown may not be finished when you close. Ask what is built today, not what is planned.
What should you check before buying a Mattamy home here?
Check the year built, the section, and the assessment — and in Randal Park, check who actually built the house.
Year built carries the most weight because Mattamy's Lake Nona work spans roughly 2006 to the present. A Nona Preserve townhome from 2008 and a current Meridian Parks home are separated by two decades of building code, insurance underwriting and finish standards. In Florida that gap is not cosmetic; it affects what an insurer will write and at what price.
Section matters in Meridian Parks and Randal Park, both large enough that the experience differs street to street. In Meridian Parks specifically, ask which phase and what is built around it now.
On assessments, do not assume a CDD is or is not present from the neighborhood name — districts can cover some phases and not others, and the amounts reset annually. Our CDD fees explainer covers how to pull the figure for a specific parcel. Nona Preserve and Randal Walk are gated townhome communities, so factor exterior maintenance and reserves into the HOA number rather than looking only at the monthly dues.
Mattamy in Lake Nona: pros and cons
What works. The New Urbanism design instinct produces neighborhoods that are genuinely pleasant to walk, and rear alleys and front porches age better than a street of garage doors. Randal Park's preserved acreage and park network are real amenities that cost nothing to maintain and cannot be built over. Mattamy's townhome product is well proportioned for the price point, and Randal Walk and Nona Preserve both sit within walking distance of a school. Private ownership and an Orlando U.S. headquarters mean the company has stayed put here across two decades and one severe downturn.
What does not. Rear-alley design has a cost most buyers discover after closing: alleys are narrow, guest parking is thin, and trash and delivery logistics are worse than on a conventional street. Nona Preserve homes are now fifteen to twenty years old and are entering the roof-and-systems window, which in the current Florida insurance market is a real budget item, not a footnote. Meridian Parks is a long build, meaning early buyers live beside construction and the finished amenity package arrives later than the sales center implies. And there is genuinely less public information about a private company — if you want to research a builder's financial condition before signing a build contract, you can read Lennar's filings and you cannot read Mattamy's.
Our take. Mattamy builds the most walkable neighborhoods in Lake Nona, and if that matters to you it is worth paying attention to. The townhome product in particular is the strongest value in this part of the market. But the four neighborhoods are not one thing: a 2008 Nona Preserve townhome and a new Meridian Parks single-family are separated by eighteen years of building standards and are not comparable purchases. And in Randal Park, "Mattamy" may not even be the right builder for the house you are looking at — it could be David Weekley or M/I. Get the year and the builder for the specific address before anything else.
What the neighbors know
In Randal Park the conversation is about the parks, plural. Eight of them, plus a five-acre central green that hosts picnics, ball games and movie nights, and residents use them in a way that people in amenity-center neighborhoods often do not use the amenity center. The other Randal Park topic is the alleys, and opinions there split cleanly between people who love not staring at garage doors and people who have tried to have four cars over.
Over in Nona Preserve, it is location. Northlake Park Community School and the Lake Nona YMCA are within walking distance, and the Publix-anchored Cornerstone at Lake Hart is right there off Narcoossee Road. In Meridian Parks the running topic is what gets built next and when, which is what everyone talks about in a neighborhood that is still going up.
Official sources
- Mattamy Homes corporate site
- Mattamy Homes company overview and history
- Forbes profile of founder Peter Gilgan
The inclusion of businesses, individuals, groups, associations, and links on this site does not imply endorsement by the site owner.
Looking at a Mattamy home in Lake Nona — Meridian Parks, Randal Park, Randal Walk or Nona Preserve? I can tell you the year built, the section, and in Randal Park who actually put up the house. Call/Text David Myers at 407.801.3286 or use the contact form.
Frequently asked questions
Which Lake Nona neighborhoods did Mattamy Homes build?
Mattamy built four Lake Nona area neighborhoods: Nona Preserve, Randal Park, Randal Walk, and Meridian Parks. Nona Preserve and Randal Walk are townhome communities, Randal Park is single-family and was finished by Mattamy after David Weekley and M/I Homes started it, and Meridian Parks is the large ongoing project in the northeast corner of the area.
Is Mattamy Homes a Canadian company?
Yes. Mattamy was founded in Toronto in 1978 by Peter Gilgan and is Canada's largest residential homebuilder. Its U.S. head office, however, is in Orlando, which makes Lake Nona a home market rather than an outpost. The company name is a combination of Gilgan's two oldest children's names, Matt and Amy.
Is Mattamy Homes publicly traded?
No. Mattamy is the largest privately owned homebuilder in North America and remains family controlled under Mattamy Asset Management. Every other major national builder in Lake Nona, including Lennar, Pulte, Toll Brothers and D.R. Horton, is publicly traded and reports to shareholders quarterly.
Why does Randal Park have more than one builder?
Randal Park was started by David Weekley Homes and M/I Homes. Mattamy took over and completed construction in 2019, then went on to build the Randal Walk townhomes near the entrance. Three builders' work sits inside one neighborhood, so the builder on a Randal Park listing depends on which section and which year the home was built. Check the specific address rather than assuming.
Is Mattamy still building in Lake Nona?
Meridian Parks is the ongoing project; Nona Preserve, Randal Park and Randal Walk are all built out and trade as resale. Meridian Parks is planned as a large community in the northeast corner of the Lake Nona area with single-family homes and townhomes, and it is expected to eventually connect toward the Sunbridge development.
