Housing near Orange County Government

04The drive to the administration center

Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando, Fruit Tree Home and City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes are all about 7 minutes from the administration center by road. Amelia’s Arena Retreat is next at 8 minutes, then Meet. Play. Stay. at 10. The Head Avenue, Entertainment and Cozy houses in Pine Hills each run about 11 minutes, Piedmont is 12, Downtown & Stadium Cozy Retreat is 14, WinterPark Home is 15, and Wekiwa Home, out in Hiawassee, is 17.

For the Convention Center on International Drive the order shifts: Fruit Tree Home is 18 minutes, Meet. Play. Stay. is 19, the Amelia, Piedmont and Sunset Lake houses are 20, and the Dollins, Head Avenue, Entertainment and Cozy houses are 21. Downtown & Stadium Cozy Retreat is 24 minutes, Wekiwa Home is 26 and WinterPark Home is 31. A consultant working both buildings in the same week, a common pattern on a multi-month county engagement, ends up weighing both numbers rather than picking a house for one alone.

The Dollins, 25th Street and Sunset Lake houses land on the same number to the administration center, so the choice between them usually comes down to bedrooms, bathrooms and yard rather than the commute itself. Piedmont, also in Washington Shores, adds a few minutes at 12. Pine Hills and Lockhart, farther northwest, trade a few more minutes on the drive for more room and more parking, and Wekiwa Home, out in Hiawassee, is the one home where the county commute is a real factor to weigh against everything else it offers.

05Where the homes sit around the campus

The map places each home in its true compass direction from the administration center, with distance from the centre standing in for drive time by road rather than straight-line miles. Amelia’s Arena Retreat sits right on the downtown edge in Parramore. Fruit Tree Home is just south of downtown in Holden Heights. The Dollins, Sunset Lake and Piedmont houses sit a little farther out to the west in Washington Shores, and Meet. Play. Stay. is farther west again in Malibu Groves. The Head Avenue, Entertainment, Cozy and Londonderry houses are northwest in Pine Hills, WinterPark Home is north in Lockhart, and Wekiwa Home is out west in Hiawassee.

Two homes in different directions can land on the same drive-time number, which is why the Washington Shores and Holden Heights pages are worth reading alongside the chart. They describe what each side of downtown is actually like day to day, not just how long the drive takes to get there.

For a stay tied to more than one county building, the map is a quick way to see which home keeps both trips reasonable. A home on the downtown edge shortens the walk to the administration center but adds a few minutes to a convention-center visit; a home farther west does the opposite. Nothing in the portfolio sits close to both at once, since the convention center sits south on International Drive while the administration center stays downtown.

06The commute on SR-408 and I-4

Every route into downtown from the west side runs through SR-408 or I-4, and both carry the heaviest volume in the metro during the morning and evening peaks. A standard 8-to-5 schedule at the administration center means driving toward downtown as the afternoon outbound commute builds, which is the easier direction to be going. A shift that starts or ends later meets more resistance on the return leg. From Holden Heights the distance is short enough that surface streets are a real option, so a stay at Fruit Tree Home does not have to touch the interstate at all.

SR-408 is a toll road, collected by transponder or by plate, and the drive out to the Convention Center on International Drive uses that same corridor. For a stay that runs several months with regular trips downtown, a SunPass or E-PASS transponder is worth setting up in the first week rather than paying the higher plate-tolling rate on every drive. Parking is never a scramble at the house end: every home comes with its own driveway, carport or parking pad, so a consultant coming home after a long meeting day is not circling the block for street space.

I-4 through downtown is free but carries the heaviest volume in the metro, and its express lanes are tolled separately from the general lanes. For a stay that leans on I-4 rather than SR-408, the same SunPass or E-PASS transponder covers both roads, so there is no need to carry two accounts for one assignment. Our getting around Orlando for work guide walks through the highways and the toll setup in more detail if this is your first stretch of driving the metro for a job.

07A month near the county campus

Orange County Government's own size explains who ends up in these homes. Staff relocating for a position with the county need a base while they look for something permanent; our relocation and long-stay page covers that stay in more depth. Consultants and engineering firms working a county project, and contractors on public-works or convention-center jobs, need a stay that runs as long as the contract does rather than a hotel bill that resets every night. Professionals in town for an extended county proceeding need somewhere to work between sessions with a door that closes, and a kitchen so an evening does not turn into another restaurant bill on top of the trip.

Those needs point to different houses across the portfolio. A consultant who wants a desk without carrying a laptop stand from home has that in the Head Avenue House in Pine Hills and the Meet & Play House in Malibu Groves, both furnished with a desk and chair in a bedroom. A contractor moving equipment or a small crew needs parking, and the Piedmont House, also in Washington Shores, has a concrete parking pad built for several vehicles. None of that changes the paperwork: every stay, whatever the reason behind it, books on the same written monthly agreement. A contractor on convention-center work who wants to book several rooms for a crew rather than one for a single consultant should look at our contractor and work crew page, which covers the four-to-six-bedroom homes built for that; a relocating employee whose company is coordinating the move can point their HR department to the corporate and business housing page for the same written-agreement structure under the company's name.

08The homes closest to the campus

Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando, Fruit Tree Home and City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes are all about 7 minutes from the administration center, and each suits a different kind of stay.

West Orlando

Washington Shores

Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando

4 bd 2 ba Sleeps 13

7 min downtown · 7 min ORMC · 16 min Universal

Travel Nurse & MedicalInsurance & Displacement

South of Downtown

Holden Heights

Fruit Tree Home

3 bd 2 ba Sleeps 10

6 min downtown · 5 min ORMC · 13 min Universal

Travel Nurse & MedicalInsurance & Displacement

West Orlando

Washington Shores / Lake Sunset

City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes

3 bd 1 ba Sleeps 8

7 min downtown · 8 min ORMC · 15 min Universal

Game Days, Concerts & WeekendsTravel Nurse & Medical

The Dollins House in Washington Shores is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on a shaded lot of mature oak trees, with blackout curtains in the bedrooms, a leather sectional in the open living room and a private driveway. It sleeps 13, which works for a family relocating with the county or a small group sharing the house during a project. The 25th Street House in Holden Heights is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom bungalow with full-size laundry on site, keyless entry and fruit trees in the yard. It carries 142 Airbnb reviews at a 4.83 rating, more than any other home in the portfolio, and its size suits a solo relocating employee or two colleagues sharing well. The Sunset Lake House, also in Washington Shores, is a smaller three-bedroom, one-bathroom bungalow under a live oak with a carport, a practical pick for one or two people on a shorter assignment who do not need the extra bedrooms.

All three sit in neighborhoods the county already touches in some way: Washington Shores and Holden Heights are both a short drive from the courthouse and the county offices downtown, and both are covered in our neighborhood pages if you want the fuller picture of what a street there looks like before you commit to a month or a year.

09Billing for a public agency or a firm

The agreement can be written to fit how the county or the company pays. If a relocation coordinator issues a purchase order, or a firm on a county contract wants the invoice in the company's name, we write the agreement that way, with a monthly rate and itemized receipts a public agency's accounting office can process. Net-30 terms run on a signed agreement or a purchase order for established companies, agencies and insurers, with the first month paid up front. A W-9 and a certificate of insurance are available on request; Libema carries a commercial landlord liability policy.

Extensions run month by month, which matters on county work because a scope of work or a proceeding calendar often slips. Tell us as soon as a project date moves and we will hold the following month where we can, at the same terms as the original booking, without a new agreement to negotiate. Our per-diem lodging guide for government and contract travelers covers the paperwork side of this in more depth, and the government and per-diem housing page covers the wider portfolio for orders and contract work across Orlando.

10Around the downtown and west-side homes

Fruit Tree Home sits close enough to downtown that groceries and errands do not take much driving: the Publix at The Paramount on Lake Eola is a few minutes away, and the Downtown Orlando YMCA on North Mills Avenue has two pools and a full class schedule. The Orange County Courthouse is one of the government buildings clustered around the administration center, alongside Creative Village, a short hop away.

Orange County Courthouse tall · Michael Rivera · CC BY-SA 4.0 · resized from 5184x3456

From the Dollins and Sunset Lake houses in Washington Shores, the closer stop for a meal is Nikki's Place on South Orange Blossom Trail, a soul food kitchen that has been serving the neighborhood since 1999. For time outdoors, Lake Lorna Doone Park, a twelve-acre park with a walking loop, outdoor fitness stations and a splash pad, sits just north of Camping World Stadium and close to both homes. Downtown itself adds Lake Eola Park, with its roughly one-mile loop and Sunday farmers market, a short drive east of Washington Shores. North of downtown, Loch Haven Park gathers the Orlando Museum of Art, the Orlando Science Center and Orlando Family Stage in one place, and College Park's Edgewater Drive nearby is where the independent coffee shops sit, Foxtail Coffee and Cups & Pups Coffee among them.

Pharmacies are easy from either side of this cluster: the Publix pharmacy at Lake Eola plus CVS and Walgreens serve downtown, and Orange Blossom Trail and West Colonial cover the Washington Shores side. A car covers all of this comfortably. The downtown edge is the one part of the portfolio where LYNX Central, the free LYMMO bus and the two downtown SunRail stations offer a real alternative for some trips, though Washington Shores and Holden Heights are still short drives rather than walks to the nearest stop. The Washington Shores & West Orlando area guide and the Downtown & Close-In area guide go deeper on both sides of this cluster.

11What's included for a long stay

Every home comes furnished for a stay of any length, whether it is a two-week proceeding or a year-long relocation. The exact inclusions are confirmed in writing when you book, but the baseline is the same across the portfolio.

Exact inclusions vary a little by home and are confirmed in writing when you book.

None of the thirteen homes has a pool; these are residential houses, and we do not present them as anything else. Bed and bath counts match each home's own listing, and a sofa is never counted as a bed. City and Stadium Sanctuary Vibes publishes only its neighborhood and zip code on the site, with the exact address shared once you book; Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando and Fruit Tree Home are two of the six homes with a published street address. Guests let themselves in with keyless entry or a lockbox, with the code or key location sent a few days before arrival, so there is no office to visit and no key to collect in person before a first day at the administration center.

12What guests said

These are real reviews from Game Day Getaway-Downtown Orlando's own Airbnb listing, quoted verbatim with the reviewer's name and month. Every home carries its own set of reviews, and the full collection across the portfolio is on our reviews page.