An Indianapolis-based developer is gearing up to bring DeLand a 142-acre tech park with restaurants, retailers, and 1.5 million square feet of industrial space.
And while it’s too early to know how many jobs it will create or what tenants will one day occupy the site along S.R. 472 near the I-4 interchange, a member of the project team said the location is already generating buzz.
“This is an area that’s getting a lot of attention right now,” Mark Watts, a land-use attorney with Cobb Cole told the Deland City Commission in August before they granted a rezoning request for the project.
Watts is representing Harry “Mac” McNaught with Denison Properties, Inc on a plan that calls for the construction of distribution centers, light industrial warehouses, and 240,000 square feet of commercial/ retail space. The conceptual plan shows a grocery-anchored shopping center with retail parcels along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and S.R. 472. The industrial section consists of two cross-dock warehouses that are closer to the interstate.
“We’ve been working with some other clients in other jurisdictions within Volusia County and a lot of them are saying they are looking here,” Watts added. “I think there’s a lot of interest right now in this interchange. I don’t think it will take long” to find users.
The area caught the eye of national homebuilder Taylor Morrison as it looked to introduce its new Build-to-rent brand, Yardly, to the Central Florida market. The company is planning to develop a 233-lot multifamily subdivision on a 28.3-acre tract adjacent to the proposed DeLand Tech Park, at the southeast corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Beltway and Cassadaga Road.
Given the proximity of the two projects, DeLand commissioners said they’d like the tech park concept to place more of an emphasis on pedestrian accessibility. They also wanted assurance that truck traffic drawn to the tech park wouldn’t interact with residents living within the BTR community.
Watts said those design elements will be incorporated into final plans. He said the team is currently working with the city through road and engineering reviews.
“The two projects were laid out in coordination with one another,” he told GrowthSpotter. “The main truck traffic for DeLand Tech Park will use the north-south roadway that connects to S.R. 472 for truck access. The residential community has its main access on Cassadaga Road, but also has a connection to MLK that is shared with the neighborhood commercial component of DeLand Tech Park, but which does not directly connect to the areas planned for truck circulation.”
McNaught with Denison Properties said he’s excited to bring this product to one of DeLand’s major gateways.
“We wanted to approach this from a community perspective, and what we heard from the community is that they wanted employment generators,” he said in a phone call. “So the bulk of the site, about two-thirds of it, is devoted to light industrial-type uses that will include advanced logistics, light manufacturing, research development, and anything in that category.”
But given all of the residential development up and down the Martin Luther King Beltway, McNaught added that it was important to also include 40 acres of retail and commercial development into the project as well.
“The real key is to bring this market to fairly soon,” he said. “We really hope to break ground this year; we think the demand is there. The demand for light industrial space is high. And we see West Volusia County as a great source for labor.”
The tech park and the BTR community are poised for land within what was formerly part of the 1,800-acre Southwest Activity Center. Located where DeLand, Orange City and Deltona converge, the activity center was designated as an employment district by each of the cities in 1990 as part of a collaborative business venture.
But the activity center contributed to very little job growth over the next several decades and the cities eventually abandoned the agreement.
DeLand commissioner Charles Paiva said he’s excited to finally see a job-generating project come forward for the city’s segment of the now-defunct activity center.
“Obviously we’ve had a very large growth of single-family so obviously what we need to do to buffer that and have a good balance is to increase industrial, increase manufacturing, and increase commercial which this accomplishes,” he said. “Overall, I’m just super excited.”
The development team plans to build a spine road, called Kirk Drive, that would run through the center of the project between S.R. 472 to Cassadaga Road, according to site plans by engineering firm VHB. The industrial development would go to the east of this road, along I-4, while the property to the west would be reserved for restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, offices, and other commercial uses, according to conceptual plans.
Parcel 1 of DeLand Tech Park is 90.45 acres in size and will consist of 1.5 million square feet of industrial space while parcel 2 is 38.54 acres in size and will consist of 130,000 square feet of commercial space, according to a city staff report about the project. Parcel 3 is 14.25 acres in size and will consist of 110,000 square feet of commercial space.
The project is broken up into 3 phases: phase 1 includes the northern portion of Parcel 1 and Parcel 2; phase 2 includes Parcel 3; and phase 4 is the southern portion of Parcel 1, the staff report says.
A large retention pond and vegetation buffer will separate the tech park from the adjacent BTR community, according to plans.
This would be Deland’s first BTR community, and one of three Taylor Morrison has in the pipeline for Central Florida under its Yardly brand. The homebuilder is also planning to roll out its Yardly product line in Eustis and Kissimmee.
Yardly communities will range in size from 100 to 300 units. The communities typically consist of one- and two-bedroom homes ranging from approximately 700 to 1,100 sq. ft. and offer low-maintenance living and smart-home technology.
Each home in a Yardly-branded community will come with a private backyard with a doggy door. Yardly communities with over 200 units would feature a Class-A amenity center with a pool, clubhouse, fitness center, dog park, and pickleball courts.
Taylor Morrison joins D.R. Horton as two of the largest production homebuilders in the U.S. with dedicated BTR divisions. In October, D.R. Horton sold its first completed BTR community, Apopka’s Avian Pointe, to Greystar for an undisclosed price.
Editor’s note: The story has been updated with comments from the developer.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)-800-1161 or dwyatt@GrowthSpotter.com. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
