Winter Park-based Atlantic Housing Partners is the third of three multifamily developers to take a portion of the 200-acre former Marriott Grande Pines Golf Course for redevelopment, closing on the land in late September and breaking ground on its 178-unit Westwood Park Apartments within the past week.
“We don’t know yet if it will be market rate or affordable housing, that decision will be made later as we consider market demand and the availability of financing resources,” principal Scott Culp told GrowthSpotter on Wednesday. “The job growth of that area and demand for quality rental housing is very attractive, with a lot of natural amenities nearby. We see it as a very strong market for multifamily rental.”
Atlantic Housing’s affiliate Westwood Park Partners, Ltd., paid $3.52 million on Sept. 23 for the 11.92-acre parcel, which lies east of Westwood Boulevard and north of Grand Banner Drive, on the western side of Cypress Harbour Condominiums.
The three-story garden-style walkup apartments will have 18 one-bedroom units and 160 two- and three-bedroom units. Amenities will include outdoor exercise stations on the perimeter of a pond, a clubhouse with computers and fitness center, a playground, and gazebo area with grilling stations and picnic tables.
Total investment is projected near $34 million, and horizontal construction started within the past week, Culp said.
The seller was AG-RW Grande Pines, LLC, an affiliate of investment advisor Angelo, Gordon & Co., LP out of New York, and New Jersey-based Ridgewood Real Estate Partners.
It bought the course’s eight parcels totaling 206.76 acres in February 2014 for $24 million, and has been rezoning and entitling the property since May 2015.
Atlantic Housing filed a Change Determination Review with Orange County on Tuesday for the already approved multifamily Development Plan, asking to move the project entrance and change fencing material.
Atlantic Housing’s deal for the third multifamily parcel at Grande Pines had not been previously announced or confirmed by Ridgewood’s president Jonathan S. Grebow.
The second parcel went to an affiliate of Wellington-based The Bainbridge Companies, which closed on its 16.26 acres of the Grande Pines property on Sept. 30 for $7 million, where it should break ground this month on the $52 million, 322-unit Bainbridge Grande Pines apartment complex. Bainbridge Construction filed a notice of commencement on Oct. 3.
The third apartment complex being built on the former golf course is already under construction. Altamonte Springs-based Picerne Development Corp. is building the 282-unit Oasis at Grande Pines on 16 acres, for which it paid $5.6 million in December 2015.
The three multifamily projects will introduce 782 new apartments along Westwood Boulevard and the southern end of International Drive.
The remainder of the Grande Pines golf course redevelopment includes a 107.43-acre portion of the development that’s planned for 436 single-family homes and townhouses, which Ridgewood is expected to sell to one residential construction group.
Four commercial outparcels fronting International Drive that total 7.38 acres will also be sold or land-leased to retail developers, along with another commercial parcel of roughly seven acres with I-Drive frontage.
Civil engineer on the Atlantic Housing project is Madden Moorhead & Stokes, general contractor is Atlantic Housing’s affiliate CCK Construction, architect is Slocum Platts and the landscape architect is Foster Conant & Associates.
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