Arlington Properties activates second multifamily project at Tyson Ranch

Months after scoring a construction loan to start a 350-unit apartment community along Boggy Creek Road near Lake Nona, Alabama-based Arlington Properties has activated plans to bring a second multifamily project to the area on property next door.

Arlington submitted a preliminary application to Orange County this week seeking input on a proposed 325-unit apartment complex on 12 acres within Tyson Ranch.

Tyson Ranch is a roughly 75-acre mixed-use project assembled by Maitland-based developer Ralph Singleton that’s been prepped for housing, hotels, and nearly 200,000 square feet of commercial space.

Arlington purchased a 13.6-acre tract on the northwest edge of the PD in 2021 for $10 million. The company secured a $68.1 million construction loan on July 28 of 2021 from FirstBank, according to county records. That same day, Arlington signaled that they had started work on a project called Tapestry Boggy Creek by submitting a notice of commencement.

The project consists of five four-story apartment buildings and four carriage houses positioned along Highclere Street, according to site plans by Daly Design Group . The layout includes a pool area, dog park, dog spa, and several parks and trails across 2.2 acres of recreational space.

The community will offer 16 studio apartment units, 89 one-bedroom units, 189 two-bedroom units, and 56 three-bedroom units.

Residential buildings will range in size from 2,896 square feet to 30,944 square feet, according to site plans.

The developer has 11 Tapestry-branded communities across the country. Land O’ Lake’s Tapestry Cypress Creek, the only one in Florida, is described on its website as a luxury apartment community with chef-inspired kitchens, stainless steel appliances, a fitness center, a Yoga studio, sports lounge, and a saltwater pool with an outdoor pavilion and fireplace.

Representatives with Arlington Properties could not be reached as of Wednesday afternoon.

The latest application by the company is for adjacent land to the east of where Tapestry Lake Nona is going up. It spans two parcels — one covering 8.4 acres and another to the south covering 3.86 acres.

While the 3-acre tract has been a part of Tyson Ranch since it was conceptualized in 2015, Singleton has owned the 8-acre plot of land since 2020, when he bought it for $3.3 million using an entity named Orlando Airport Property LLC.

After taking over the deed, Singleton moved to add the extra parcel to the existing Tyson Ranch PD.

While the land use change to expand the boundaries of Tyson Ranch is still pending final approval from the county, Arlington is eyeing that parcel for an apartment community with five buildings rising as high as five stories.

The largest building, in the center of the property, would hold 127 units and 12,000 square feet of amenity space and form a half-square shape around a pool area, according to conceptual site plans by architecture firm Fifth Dimension.

Three of the residential buildings along Boggy Creek Road will cover enough space for 64 units a piece. The two buildings would hold three units apiece.

The site also includes a bark park and a retention pond on the east side of the community.

Tyson Ranch, located just south of the Orlando International Airport, has welcomed a number of new development projects lately.

A land development plan submitted to Orange County in January revealed that a Townplace Suites by Marriott and a Homewood Suites by Hilton, two extended-stay brands, would go on side-by-side sites along Boggy Creek Road, to the south of the Arlington apartment projects.

The Townplace Suites would cover 87,300 square feet on the west side of a 15.3-acre tract with 120 rooms. The Homewood Suites will be slightly bigger, spanning 112,000 square feet in an L-shape with 130 rooms, according to plans drafted by Z Development Services.

There are currently eight Townplace Suites by Marriott in the greater Orlando area, including a location downtown, four in the tourism district, and one in Seminole County’s Altamonte Springs. The others are positioned near UCF’s campus in East Orlando and near the Orlando International Airport.

There are also eight Homewood Suites by Hilton in the greater Orlando area, with five near Disney and Universal theme parks. There’s one in Maitland, one near UCF, and another by the airport.

Hilton and Marriott are the two largest hospitality brands in the world.

National homebuilder M/I Homes is also bringing its product to the Tyson Ranch PD. The Ohio-based company is building a community of 318 two-story townhomes on about 36 acres to the west of the Arlington apartment projects.

This area of Boggy Creek Road, as a whole, is seeing a flurry of residential development activity.

Just south of the hotel site, Miami-based Royal Palm Companies is under contract to take over a 17.7-acre assemblage on the north side of Simpson Road in order to build a 360-unit apartment community.

On the opposite side of Boggy Creek Road, land investors Jim Dowd and Daryl Carter are getting ready to hand off some of the 22 acres they own to a Texas-based developer with plans to build two separate multifamily projects totaling 638 units.

Dowd said he isn’t surprised to see so many apartment projects moving forward in the vicinity.

“We know firsthand the current and long-term value of this location,” he said. You can ask anyone in the apartment development industry anywhere in the U.S. and they are aware of the strength and desirability of the Lake Nona market.”

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)-800-1161 or dwyatt@GrowthSpotter.com. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.