After building a subdivision in Sanford with a more-affordable line of houses — and after those homes sold out quickly— Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers is ready to add another lower-cost single-family product across the street.
The company recently submitted plans to the St. John’s River Water Management District for 84 townhome units with commercial space on 14 acres of land south of Lake Mary Boulevard at the northwest intersection of Kentucky Street and Skyway Drive.
On the opposite side of Skyway Drive, Toll Brothers recently finished its Parkview Place subdivision with 70 single-family detached homes ranging from 1,368 to 2,506 square feet. Home prices started at $288,995 and it’s currently sold out, according to Ben Laube Homes, a real estate company that has represented several buyers in the community.
“The properties moved pretty fast,” Ben Laube told GrowthSpotter. “A large portion of them sold before construction was even completed. There’s a high need for new home construction in the Sanford area as a whole, and the price point was reasonable.”
Toll Brothers secured four parcels across from Parkview Place for its planned townhome community in October for $2.4 million, according to Seminole County property records.
Site plans drafted by GL Summit Engineering call for townhome units with a minimum living space of 1,000 square feet and a maximum building height of 35 feet, or two stories. The plan sets aside 5.2 acres for open space, more than the 4.6 acres required.
The development is expected to bring 34 school-aged children to the Sanford city limits, and the homebuilder plans to construct sidewalks along the east side of Skyway Avenue to connect to the one at Lake Mary Blvd.
The property also includes 2.6 acres of commercial space with frontage along Lake Mary Boulevard that will be developed separately. That site is listed with Trevor Hall and Tommy Pinel at Colliers International at an asking price of 775,000, according to Dustin Bowersett, Toll Brothers’ director of land acquisition.
Townhomes generally provide a less expensive option than detached homes.
In Orange County, detached homes sold at an average price of $544,510 in 2021 while townhomes in the county sold for an average price of $331,873 in that same year, according to the property appraiser’s office.
By offering a townhome product beside Parkview Place, Toll Brothers, which markets itself as a luxury homebuilder, is sticking with the lower-cost offering for this area, directly across from the Boombah Sports Complex.
“We have seen strong demand for (townhomes) in this market,” Bowersett said. “Our decision for (townhomes) was to deliver a home that is an attractive and functional alternative to the more expensive detached homes that Toll and others offer in this submarket.”
It’s a product that some local government planners have stressed a desire to see more of. Seminole County, for example, is currently tweaking its land development code to make it easier for these housing types to move forward.
The current code, as it’s written, doesn’t provide rules for other single-family home types such as townhomes, which are growing in popularity.
Mary Moskowitz, the manager of the county’s planning and development division, told GrowthSpotter in September that townhomes provide another option for individuals and families who prefer not to live in an apartment community but aren’t quite ready to move into a larger, more expensive single-family home.
“We are seeing a lot more desire (by developers) to do that thing in the middle: The townhomes, the quadplexes,” she said. “We want to allow our code to be able to accommodate those types of uses. We certainly want to see more of those located in the right place.”
The goal, she added, is to incentivize these housing product types in urban and infill areas by expediting the process.
“We are seeking to provide Seminole County residents the opportunity to have more attainable housing choices,” she said.
Toll Brothers has been active throughout Central Florida.
Recently, the company entered into a contract to buy the first phase of Ham Brown Reserve, a 217-acre mixed-use master-planned community in Osceola County that spans both sides of Ham Brown Road and is approved for nearly 1,100 homes.
Site plans submitted to the county would assign a total of 254 homesites to Toll Brothers. That includes 92 townhouse units, each 24-feet-wide, and 34 alley-loaded bungalow lots. The remaining detached home lots would be a mix of 40-, 45- and 50-foot lots.
This marked the company’s second foray into Osceola. Toll Brothers is one of five national home builders to lock into Tavistock Development Company‘s master-planned Sunbridge community, which spans 27,000 acres.
Toll Brothers is a Fortune 500 company active in 24 states. The Company serves first-time, move-up, empty-nester, active-adult, and second-home buyers, as well as urban and suburban renters. In Central Florida, product offerings range from luxury townhomes in The Packing District that start at nearly $600,000, to $1 million estates in Lake Nona and Bella Collina, to suburban communities in Sanford priced in the $400,000s.
A number of residential development projects are in the pipeline for this area of Sanford along Lake Mary Boulevard.
At Kentucky Street, near where Toll Brothers is planning its new townhome community, Landsea Homes is looking to add a 149-lot subdivision to land along Eaglewoods Trail, roughly three miles southeast of the Orlando-Sanford Airport.
On the southwest corner of Celery Avenue and Cameron Avenue, Taylor Morrison is planning to build a 124-lot subdivision on 34 acres.
Meanwhile, American Homes 4 Rent is looking to build its second build-to-rent community in Sanford along Lake Mary Boulevard. Palmetto Pointe would have 100 homes.
Further west, near U.S. 17-92, Ohio-based multifamily developer PLK Communities is planning to build a 240-unit apartment complex on 26 acres on the north side of Lake Mary Boulevard.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the closing price of the townhome community property. It was $2.4 million.
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.
