The Retreat at Twin Lakes is a

gated community A gated community (or walled community) is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences ...

in the US city of

Sanford, Florida Sanford is a city and the county seat of Seminole County, Florida, United States. It is located in Central Florida and its population was 61,051 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford Metropolitan Statistical ...

. The community initially consisted of 1,400-square-foot (130 m²) townhouses which sold on average for $250,000, but had values below $100,000 by February 2012 due in large part to the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. Twin Lakes received national attention as the site of the

killing of Trayvon Martin On the evening of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, who was visiting his father while suspended from his Miami-area school. Zimmerman, a 28-yea ...

George Zimmerman George Michael Zimmerman (born October 5, 1983) is an American man who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012. On July 13, 2013, he was acquitted of second-degree murder in '' F ...

History

In 2004, Engle Homes began construction on the 263 two-story townhouse development which is located 18 miles (30 km) northeast of

downtown Orlando Downtown Orlando is the historic core and central business district of Orlando, Florida, United States. It is bordered by Marks Street in the north, Mills Avenue ( SR 15) in the east, Orange Blossom Trail ( US 441) in the west, and Kaley Avenu ...

. The community, near

Interstate 4 Interstate 4 (I-4) is an Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Florida, maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). Spanning along a generally southwest–northeast axis ...

in a suburban section of Sanford, was marketed as "an oasis where nobody could park a car on the street or paint the house an odd color." The remaining lots were acquired by Lennar following the 2008 bankruptcy filing of Engle, and the neighborhood was finally built out in 2011. George Zimmerman moved to the community in 2009. At that time, the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

caused a "demographic transformation" of the gated community, where 1,400-square-foot (130 m²) townhouses had once sold on average for $250,000. However, by February 2012, that value "...had fallen below $100,000." With the change came a "spate of burglaries" which were largely due to the "...large-scale foreclosures in the wake of the housing crash led investors to rent, rather than sell, the spaces, which brought a new, transient type of resident." These events were the background which led to the fatal shooting and the controversy of the

stand-your-ground law A stand-your-ground law, sometimes called a "line in the sand" or "no duty to retreat" law, provides that people may use deadly force when they reasonably believe it to be necessary to defend against certain violent crimes (right of self-defense ...

s which were in effect in the entire state of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. After the shootings, the community was in the "national spotlight."

Demographics

According to the ''

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its original purpose was "to assess the performance ...

'', The Retreat at Twin Lakes has a demographic that mirrored that of the city it was in, which was "relatively diverse—50 percent white, 30 percent Hispanic, and 20 percent

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

." In 2010, the community reported 326 crime incidents which ranged from homicide to burglaries. According to another source, the community was one where "very few black teens like rayvon Martinlive."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Retreat at Twin Lakes, The Gated communities in Florida Sanford, Florida Killing of Trayvon Martin 2000s establishments in Florida