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LAND O'LAKES - Wilderness Lake Preserve's theater is like a commercial movie house in almost every way: cushioned reclining seats with built-in cup holders, large elevated screen, sound-muffling walls and a bunny skittering among the tiers of seats.
Maybe you ought to cross out that part about the bunny.
Hopping freely among the rows in the 27-seat Wilderness Theater, Skylar leaves behind smiles instead of piles. He's potty trained, after all. A ramp leads to the cage where he does his business.
"He comes and goes as he pleases," said Kelly Evans, director of Wilderness Lake Lodge, the neighborhood clubhouse of which the theater is a part.
Skylar's comfort with his surroundings pretty much symbolizes Wilderness Lake itself. The neighborhood on U.S. 41, soon to grow to 950 homes, offers just enough of the rustic for those seeking rusticity and just enough luxuries for those seeking luxuriousness.
Some eyes rolled three years ago when Carl Lindell Jr., then the owner of Volkswagen and Honda dealerships, and his friend, developer Ron Weisser, staked out land on U.S. 41 across from Land O'Lakes High School.
Their development wouldn't draw its inspiration from sub-tropical Florida, the Spanish Mediterranean or Key West. Wilderness Lake Preserve was to invoke the pine forests of upstate New York's Adirondack Mountains.
The theme has succeeded, judging from the neighborhood's brisk sales and the mantel-filling rows of industry awards it has won.
Weisser and Lindell scooped up a Grand Aurora Award for residential development at the 26th annual Southeast Building Conference earlier this month in Orlando.
They also won for "best community clubhouse and best recreational facility" for their 11,000-square-foot lodge overlooking a 38-acre lake. The building conference represents 12 states. Earlier this year, Wilderness was named Pasco County's community of the year.
Sitting in the wood-trimmed lobby near a chandelier made of deer antlers, his feet resting on carpet and flagstones, Weisser takes a moment to enjoy his accomplishments.
Through the rear window in the lodge, a young couple tries to pull a canoe into the lake, eyeing a gray sky that threatens with a thunderstorm.
Two women in the neighboring Bath House & Spa sweat and chat on exercise bikes and treadmills. Piped in music by the group America fills the spa.
You can do magic.
You can have anything that you desire.
Magic.
"I think it aggravates the big national developers that a car dealer and worn-out developer could do what we did," Weisser said with a laugh.
After two years, Wilderness has sold 402 lots, including some in the second phase, about a block from the lodge, that's still little more than dirt. Buyers already live in 280 homes.
Few starter homes are available. The lowest priced model is 1,400 square feet and costs $157,900. Westfield, Morrison, David Weekley and M/I Homes are among the builders.
For the most expensive models, by luxury builders Hannah Bartoletta Homes and Bayfair Homes, you could plunk down more than $1-million. Many of the pricey lots kiss Wilderness Lake.
The mountain lodge theme pervades the whole neighborhood, from the forest green roof tiles and pine log beams of the clubhouse and welcome center to the security guards decked out like forest rangers.
Weisser credits Orlando architect Don Evans. Lindell and Weisser invited Evans out to the 600 acres they had bought from the family of former state Sen. Paul Revere Kickliter.
Evans surveyed the sandy lakefront occupied by an old caretaker's shack. Instead of proposing something suitably Floridian, Evans dreamed of terrain 1,200 miles to the north.
"He said, "Ron, we're not going to have a clubhouse, we're going to have a lodge,' " Weisser said.
"Once he started sketching, we said, "Hey this is really cool. Nobody else is going to have it,' " Weisser said.
The businessmen might have rued their decision. They squirmed as Evans first announced he was 50 percent over budget. Then 150 percent. Ultimately the lodge-centered amenities cost $5-million, twice as much as planned.
But the lodge has been a hit since it opened a little more than a year ago. People barbecue on a communal fire pit near the lake. They are known to mix cocktails at a bar in the lobby and sip their drinks on leather furniture.
Adjoining the exercise wing of the clubhouse are rooms for manicures, massages and facials. A hot tub and sauna complement two swimming pools. An activities center connected to the main lodge by a breezeway offers a swimming pool and pingpong tables, a jukebox and a kitchen.
The Nature Center - kids can handle an iguana and Skylar the cage-trained bunny - is run in concert with Lowry Park Zoo. The Wilderness Theater screens movies. Coming soon: Legally Blonde. Seats are first-come, first-served.
Amenities aren't free. Residents pay community development district fees ranging from about $50 to $100 a month for operations and maintenance and a similar amount to pay for the neighborhood's roads, street lights and other infrastructure.
Weisser argues the fees are worth it if it means a better planned, better built and better managed community.
"Carl likes to say that even if you buy our least expensive home, you can feel like a millionaire," Weisser said.