Has anyone in Lake Nona eaten dinner at Lake Nona West yet? Almost three months after the center opened on Lake Nona Boulevard near Boggy Creek Road, the honest answer is no. You can buy a tent, a set of golf irons, a bookshelf's worth of paperbacks and a case of wine there. You can't sit down for a meal, because every listing in the center's Dining section still reads "COMING SOON."
Tavistock built Lake Nona West to be a place where people stay. The things that make people stay haven't opened yet, so for this fall the center works as an errand run, and Lake Nona Town Center still holds the neighborhood's evenings and its calendar.
The second wave was more big boxes
Lake Nona's own July 29 announcement listed four opening tenants at 5959 Lake Nona Blvd.: Target, Homesense, Barnes & Noble and Total Wine & More. Target is the anchor, at nearly 150,000 square feet, and it uses the retailer's newer, larger store format. The whole center covers 54 acres and more than 405,000 square feet.
The stores that followed over the summer and early fall made the center even more practical. Here's where the announced tenants stood in mid-October, based on each brand's own pages and the Lake Nona West directory:
| Tenant | What it is | Status in mid-October |
|---|---|---|
| Target, Homesense, Barnes & Noble, Total Wine & More | First wave of anchors and big boxes | Open since July |
| DICK'S Sporting Goods | Sporting goods, sharing a 66,000-square-foot building with Golf Galaxy | Open, regular daily hours posted |
| Golf Galaxy | Golf retail, with a Performance Center planned | Open, daily hours posted |
| Nordstrom Rack | Nearly 26,000 square feet, with pickup and returns for online orders | Listed under "Now Open" after a September 24 grand opening |
| JETSET Pilates | Reformer Pilates studio founded in Miami Beach | Open, classes on the schedule for October |
| Sephora, Drybar, Gloss Nail Co. | Beauty, blowouts, natural nail care | Coming soon, no date posted |
| Cañonita Lake Nona, Just Salad, Kilwins | Dining and sweets | Coming soon, no date posted |
Nordstrom Rack's timing shifted along the way. A spring forecast had it opening in August. The Lake Nona Regional Chamber of Commerce then promoted a September 24 grand opening, and that's the date the store kept. The Golf Galaxy store is open, but its Performance Center doesn't have its own announcement yet, so call ahead before booking a club fitting.
Most of what's open is the kind of store you visit with a list. Five of the six tenants that keep people around after the errands, meaning the restaurants, the sweets shop, the salon and the nail studio, are still papered over. Sephora rounds out the coming-soon group. JETSET Pilates is the one exception so far.
Every listing under Dining still says "Coming Soon"
The Dining section of the directory has three entries, and all three carry the same label.
- Cañonita Lake Nona is a contemporary Mexican restaurant from Tavistock Restaurant Collection. It's making its Central Florida debut in a 7,700-square-foot space. In April, GrowthSpotter reported a fourth-quarter 2026 target.
- Just Salad is described by Lake Nona as the first U.S. restaurant chain to put carbon labels on its full menu.
- Kilwins sells chocolates, ice cream and fudge, with the fudge made in-store on marble tables.
The center's own pitch explains why this gap matters. Lake Nona says the shaded promenades connect "the shops and future restaurants." It points to pocket parks, gathering greens and bike lanes, and closes with the line that Lake Nona West "is a place designed to stay awhile, not simply pass through." All of that design assumes there's a reason to stop between the parking lot and the car. Right now, the reason is a Barnes & Noble browse or a Pilates class, not a lunch table.
The developer has also been open that this will take a while:
"Additional national, local and first-to-market concepts will be announced in the months ahead, with openings continuing into early 2027."
That line comes from the same Lake Nona update. "Into early 2027" is the timeline for the whole lineup, so some of the coming-soon tenants may not open before the holidays.
Two Cañonitas, one already open
The Cañonita name is easy to mix up right now. On Lake Nona's page for the Veterans Day Parade, the November 11 dining offer for veterans and active-duty military names five participating restaurants: Before It Melts, Canvas, Chroma, Park Pizza and Canonita. Meanwhile, the Lake Nona West directory still lists Cañonita as coming soon.
These are separate restaurants. The FAQ in Lake Nona's opening update explains that Cañonita Street Taqueria at Boxi Park is a quick-service concept from Tavistock Restaurant Collection. Cañonita Lake Nona, the one coming to Lake Nona West, will be the full-service version. You can already get Cañonita food at Boxi Park. The sit-down Cañonita on the west side doesn't have an opening date yet.
Town Center keeps the fall calendar
With no restaurants open yet at Lake Nona West, every dated event on Lake Nona's fall schedule lands at Town Center and Boxi Park. The schedule starts Thursday, October 22:
- Thursday, October 22, through Sunday, October 25: Graveyard Smash Weekend at Boxi Park. The weekend includes live music, Halloween activities for kids and a dog costume contest.
- Saturday, November 7, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: City of Orlando Veterans Day Parade. This is the city's 27th annual parade, held at Lake Nona Town Center, with a ceremony and family activities afterward.
- Wednesday, November 11: the Veterans Day dining offer. Veterans and active-duty military get 20% off food and non-alcoholic drinks, up to $100, at the five participating restaurants. It's dine-in only and requires a military ID or uniform. The same page says those guests get 10% off any day of the year.
- Friday, December 4: Opening Night Tree Lighting, 6 to 10 p.m., presented by AdventHealth.
- December 4 through December 20: Oh, What Fun! Holiday Festival at Town Center, with Santa's Cottage and holiday weekends at Boxi Park.
Military households get two separate reasons to come out in November. The parade is on a Saturday, and the restaurant offer falls four days later on a Wednesday, so they don't overlap.
Fitting both districts into one Saturday
Since the two districts now do different jobs, plan the order of your day around that.
Start the morning at Lake Nona West, when the errands are the point and the parking lot is quieter. Target, Total Wine & More, DICK'S, Golf Galaxy and Nordstrom Rack all sit in one walkable center. Take a few extra minutes for the public art. Chalk & Brush is leading a program of 30 original murals spread across the buildings and walkways. The biggest is the "Greetings from Lake Nona West" mural facing Lake Nona Boulevard, which includes The Glass House and Disco the dog. As of the July update, the murals were still "taking shape," so you may find some walls finished and others still in progress.
If you drive an EV, don't count on charging there yet. Lake Nona describes a 20-stall Level 3 hub powered by Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging as something that "will add" a charging option, and no update since July has said it's running.
For lunch, dinner or anything that runs past dark, head to Town Center. Before It Melts, Canvas, Chroma and Park Pizza appear on Lake Nona's Veterans Day restaurant list, Cañonita Street Taqueria serves at Boxi Park, and Boxi Park hosts the October and December weekend events. That split will shift once Cañonita, Just Salad and Kilwins open on the west side. Until they do, you'll shop at Lake Nona West and eat at Town Center.
Every coming-soon label at Lake Nona West will eventually change how this part of Orlando works day to day, and which storefronts open first can shape how people think about the streets around them. If you'd like a steady, local read on how the new center is changing Lake Nona, The Baldor Group follows these openings week by week and is glad to talk them through. Contact Us.
