With dozens of housing projects in the works across Central Florida — including Orlando’s first-ever Agrihood concept— America’s third-largest home builder is looking to add to its already bountiful single-family portfolio in Orange County.
Atlanta-based Pulte Homes is under contract to take over 31 acres of agricultural land at the southeastern intersection of Roper Road and State Road 535 in Winter Garden.
According to a permit application submitted recently to the St. John’s River Water Management District, Pulte is planning to build an 87-lot subdivision called Winter Groves.
Most of the homes, 41 of them, will be built on 50-foot lots while ten of the homes will go on sprawling 80-foot lots.
The other 36 homes will rise on 60-foot lots, according to site plans drafted by engineering and planning firm Donald W McIntosh Associates, Inc.
Homes would have a minimum living space of 1,500 square feet and 65% of them will have a compliant front porch, plans show.
The community comes with a few architectural conditions as well. For example, no homes with identical elevations or color schemes can be built on adjacent lots or across the street from each other.
For lots 29 through 41, accessory structures, such as screen rooms or pool enclosures, are not permitted within the 25-feet PUD setback.
Since 1975, the three parcels have been owned by citrus farmer Dallas Duppenthaler, who died in 2018, records show. His family took over the estate in 2015.
The land, on the east side of S.R. 535, is surrounded by subdivisions on three sides. The master-planned Stonecrest community, which consists of five villages built by MI Homes, stretches to the east and south.
To the west is KB Home‘s 278-lot gated community Black Lake Park where homes range in size from 1,695 to 4,046 square feet. The only home currently for sale here is listed at $680,000.
A short drive to the east, Pulte is building out one of its Del Webb-branded 55-plus communities on roughly 200 acres within Village I of Horizon West. With 422 single-family lots, including 156 townhome units, Del Webb Oasis is under construction on Lake Gifford Way, south of the Hartzog Road extension and north of Orange Lake Resort.
Homes are available for pre-sell within the Del Webb Oasis community starting at $419,990, according to its website.
Pulte closed on 28,894 homes in 2021, the third most of any home-builder that year, according to Builder 100. It has dozens of projects underway in Central Florida.
Recently, Pulte entered into a contract to buy 838 acres on the northwest tip of Lake Tohopekaliga in Kissimmee. Hilliard Isle calls for a commercial marina on the lake and would rival the city’s largest master-planned communities in size and scope.
The proposed development program includes 2,448 residential units; 180,000 square feet of retail/office uses, and a commercial marina with up to 10,000 square feet of restaurant and neighborhood retail uses. Of the residential units, 1,828 are proposed to be single-family attached and detached units and 620 are proposed as multifamily units.
Pulte is no stranger to large-scale master-planned communities like these.
Among those is EverBe, the 1,572-acre development just off Lee Vista Boulevard at the Beachline Expressway formerly known as Vista Park. That project, now in Phase 1 development, is approved for 3,486 dwelling units, including a gated section for a potential active adult section.
Pulte is also the exclusive homebuilder for Orange County’s first agrihood, The Grow, with 2,078 residential lots and more than 100,000 square feet of commercial space centered around a nine-acre working farm.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)-800-1161 or dwyatt@GrowthSpotter.com, or tweet me at @DustinWyattGS. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
