Three years after it started building homes in Osceola County’s Kindred community, D.R. Horton is moving forward with plans for roughly 110 acres of commercial property in the sprawling mixed-use development south of NeoCity.
The developer has filed a Preliminary Subdivision Plan designating a future K-8 school site and two commercial lots on either side of the future Cross Prairie Parkway. The 20-acre school site will be dedicated to Osceola County Schools and fulfills the developer’s school impact obligation.
The two commercial lots are 17.72 acres and 91.87 acres, respectively. According to the Kindred PD, the community center is “intended to serve as the pedestrian hub of the Great Park and Open Space System and provide a shopping and cultural destination for residents of Kindred and the region.”
The master-planned community is approved for nearly 3,000 single-family homes and 639 mulitfamily units. The mixed-use project also has entitlements for 550,000 square feet of retail, office and institutional uses.
Kindred is the northernmost of five large mixed-use communities in the 11,000-acre East Lake Toho Master Plan, and was the first to be developed. The next phase of the Cross Prairie Parkway will connect the community to Tohoqua, which is being developed by Mattamy Homes.
The project is divided into three phases, and D.R. Horton is nearing the threshold where it must initiate non-residential development. The developer has already received Site Development Plan approvals for all of Phase 1 (809 homes) and is awaiting final approval for the first four sections of Phase 2.
But the PD requires that infrastructure must be in place to support 60,000 square feet of non-residential uses before the certificate of occupancy (CO) will be issued for the 1,200th residential unit.
In addition, the developer must have a CO for at least 25,000 square feet of retail or other non-residential uses before any building permits will be issued for Phase 2.
D.R. Horton is also required to build the Cross Prairie Parkway section from Partin Settlement Road to Kissimmee Lake Road. Osceola County is currently building the first section of the parkway, from Neptune Road to Partin Settlement.
Brian Capo, local retail specialist with Marcus & Millichap, said the close proximity to NeoCity makes Kindred a strong site for multifamily development, but it will be a while before traffic counts on Cross Prairie Parkway will be large enough to sustain anything more than neighborhood commercial uses.
Horton consultant Jim Cooper told the county’s Development Review Committee last May that the builder was starting 25 to 30 new homes per month.
Phase 2 is entitled for 1,605 dwelling units, which includes 759 homes in the pending SDP plus future apartments, condos or live-work spaces in the community center.
As Kindred develops into an established community, the commercial district is intended to develop into a traditionally designed urban center, with public spaces, buildings oriented to the street, a mix of uses, and the flexibility to change uses over time.
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