Feltrim Group planning apartments along 30th St. in Haines City

Haines City is set to get its first apartment complex in nearly two decades with its own Feltrim Group making the plan.

“There hasn’t been been apartment development in something like 18 years,” Feltrim CEO Garrett Kenny told GrowthSpotter. “I’m trying to attract people moving in the area looking to relocate.”

Between 12,000 and 14,000 single-family residential units are in the works for the next couple of years in Polk County, Kenny said. With new build comes construction jobs and relocation – not everyone wants to buy a house right away, he said.

Feltrim’s apartment complex – to be called Feltrim Gardens – is just west of Feltrim’s Tarpon Bay – a 370 unit community of single-family homes, estates and townhomes. Feltrim sold the lots to Park Square Homes.

North across Roe the 256-unit single-family-home complex called Liberty Bluff at Covered Bridge is planned, Haines City’s Mark Bennett told GrowthSpotter. Bennett is deputy director of development. Feltrim Gardens at Roe Road and 30th Street will be mostly studios and one-bedroom apartments, Kenny said.

Plans filed with Haines City by Orlando’s Boyd Civil Engineering show a pair of rectangular, residential buildings, each with 99 units, designed to fit the narrow lot. The unit breakdown is 132 1-bedroom units and 66 2-3 bedroom units, along with 20,000 square feet of neighborhood retail. Included in the plans for Feltrim Gardens are a club house, pool and amenities area, Amazon-designated delivery drop off and a walking trail with benches.

Feltrim will build the apartments in the first phase of construction, Kenny said. The second phase will be retail/commercial, similar to the 20,000-square-foot strip mall Feltrim built in Davenport in 2001.

“There’s no retail out there,” Kenny said. “Whether it’s one store or five stores or seven stores,” it will be retail residents can walk to. “Nail salon, liquor store, your mini market – that’s what was in the back of my head.”

Kenny expects the apartment complex construction to start in the third quarter of next year and take nine to 10 months.

Feltrim Gardens needs a rezoning to residential from business park and industrial. The proposed zoning change is set to be heard at the Haines City Planning Commission meeting Jan. 13 and by the full city commission in February, Bennett said. Staff is recommending approval.

Kenny and Feltrim have several projects in the works in Haines City, including Tarpon Bay, Clay Cut Landings - a planned residential community that will consist of 495 single-family homes with 52-feet by 120 feet lots; and a plan to redevelop a portion of city’s downtown business district.

Feltrim’s downtown plan includes retail stores, some offices and some apartments and will cost between $12 million and $15 million, Kenny told GrowthSpotter in October. Kenny was the only bidder for the city project.

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