Haines City commissioners approve MOU for Feltrim Group’s proposed downtown redevelopment project

A plan to redevelop a portion of Haines City’s downtown business district into retail, offices and apartments is moving forward, and will now include a parking structure.

Haines City’s Feltrim Group, run by CEO Garrett Kenny, was the only developer who submitted a bid to redevelop a portion of city’s downtown business district. Soon after Feltrim won the bid, city commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding, selling the property for $800,000 and adding the parking structure that the city will pay for.

Feltrim’s plan includes retail stores, offices and apartments and will cost between $12 million and $15 million, Kenny told GrowthSpotter in October. Feltrim Group planning more homes and downtown redevelopment in Haines City

“I think it will definitely change the landscape of Haines City,” Kenny told GrowthSpotter this week. “Haines City is going through a lot of growth.”

Six single-family home communities representing about 1,700 units are in various stages of planning within Haines City limits, planner April Brown told GrowthSpotter in June. And Feltrim has a project already in the works to build apartments along 30th Street.

Feltrim’s original proposal included surface parking, but that site will now be home to a four-story parking garage, Kenny said.

The parking garage property will remain under city ownership. Feltrim will get some tax incentives, municipal utility exemptions and a zero-percent interest loan not to exceed $250,000 to investigate the viability of the project.

“We don’t want to deliver just any product,” Kenny said. “I want to have people who live there, drink there, eat there and play there. … I think the idea of the city being very proactive with putting in a car park structure, that will help.”

The civil engineer is S&ME. Ernesto Gonzales-Chavez is the principal architectural design with Winter Park-based AIP Design as architects in partnership. Feltrim will manage the project and build it.

Kenny said the company wants to build a microbrewery downtown, although that will take other approvals and wasn’t included in the RFP. The project known as Feltrim Place includes 11,000 square feet for retail, 5,000 square feet for offices and about 110 residential units. The residences mostly will be one-bedroom suite and studio apartments with some two-bedroom apartments, Kenny said.

The proposed rental rate is $1.10 a square foot, according to the site design plan. That’s about $800 for 719-square foot one-bedroom unit and $640 for a 582 square foot studio.

“We’re trying to target professionals who maybe work in the city, maybe in Polk County,” Kenny said. “People are the lifeblood of a downtown,” and he said he doesn’t want to see downtown close at 5 p.m. when the workday ends as it does in some cities.

The goal is to attract active adults – professional couples, singles and creative professionals.

Kenny sees 34 to 36 months from the start of the due diligence process to occupancy that would include 18 months of construction.

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