Wendover to build new apartments on site of former public housing project in Sanford’s Goldsboro neighborhood

Wendover Housing Partners is close to gaining final city approval for a 64-unit multifamily housing community in Sanford’s historic Goldsboro neighborhood.

Construction on the community, called Monroe Landings, phase 1, should commence in 60-90 days, according to Wendover development associate Ryan von Weller.

“Building officials are now reviewing the drawings,” von Weller told GrowthSpotter. “As soon as we get the building permits, we’ll be ready to break ground the following week.”

Construction should take 10 months, von Weller said. Maitland-based Slocum Platts is the architect. The general contractor will be Roger B. Kennedy Construction of Altamonte Springs, and CPH of Sanford will be the engineering consultant.

The apartment complex will be built on 11 acres owned by the Sanford Housing Authority in the southwest quadrant of West Third Street and Olive Avenue. Public housing once occupied the site, but the low-income units were demolished in 2016 after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development deemed them uninhabitable. The Housing Authority will lease the land to Wendover, von Weller said, and will be a partner in the development.

Monroe Landings will be mixed income with some units set aside for residents whose income is at 60 percent or less of the area median income. Other units will be offered to former residents of the public housing projects who were given housing vouchers when those buildings were razed.

“We’ll have everything from typical workforce market rate units, all the way to public housing (people with housing vouchers),” von Weller said.

The first phase will consist of three, three-story buildings with 16 one-bedroom units, 32 two-bedroom and 16 three-bedroom. The complex will have the same furnishings and amenities as a market-rate complex, von Weller said.

“All our communities look like market-rate communities,” he said. “If you drove past any of our communities, you wouldn’t be able to differentiate them from market-rate apartments.”

Wendover received $1,195,000 in competitive housing tax credits through the Florida Housing Finance Corp. for this project. The credits, which provide a dollar-for-dollar reduction in a taxpayer’s federal income tax, are usually sold to private investors to help finance affordable housing.

Von Weller said it is yet to be determined what the next four phases will be like and whether Wendover will be the developer. Also unknown at this time: the total cost of development.

Monroe Landings is part of the transformation plan for Goldsboro, an historic African American enclave founded in 1891 and annexed by Sanford in 1911. The transformation plan, which will include commercial as well as residential redevelopment, was the product of a planning process that involved more than 300 residents and community stakeholders, according to the project’s website. The community worked together to envision the community’s future through seven working groups that each met 10 times, plus four community-wide information fairs that attracted over 200 residents.

Wendover is involved in two other housing projects in Sanford. Warley Park, which will provide 85 affordable housing units for the homeless and people suffering from mental illness, is close to completion, von Weller said.

Work should start next week on Norton Commons, also in Sanford, which will provide 68 affordable units for tenants 55 and older.

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