For the last four years the Citizens of Tavares, City Council and Staff have been involved in a successful process transforming a moribund downtown and waterfront park into a vibrant community asset. A community Visioning process first defined the future direction of the City. This was followed by a lengthy process to prepare and approve an updated CRA Comprehensive Master Plan for the City’s downtown core area and a concerted effort to increase downtown waterfront major events from 4 to 16 per year. Simultaneously a Branding initiative was undertaken that resulted in the overwhelming approval for the designation of “Tavares, America’s Seaplane City”. During this same time the City Council has embraced the planning, design, permitting, funding and construction of an $8.3 million Seaplane Base/Marina project. Following is a discussion of the major components of this transformation process.