After plans for a townhome community fell through, a local affordable housing developer has stepped up with a new proposal for a nearly 10-acre plot of land near AdventHealth East Orlando hospital.
Maitland-based Birdsong Housing Partners is requesting a preliminary application meeting with Orange County planning staff to discuss the possibility of putting a senior affordable housing community near the intersection of S. Goldenrod Road and Lake Underhill Road, a few miles east of the Orlando Executive Airport.
The company has also submitted an application to the Florida Housing Financing Corporation requesting for $2.9 million in competitive Low Income Housing Tax Credits for the project.
“We are really excited about this,” said Steve Auger, the CEO with Birdsong Housing, “It’s a great location. That location has a lot of amenities and useful things in the community, it has medical nearby. There’s shopping, there’s a bus stop nearby. So it’s a good location from that perspective.”
But the area is missing one thing, Auger added.
“It’s a part of the county that doesn’t have a lot of affordable housing units,” he said. “So there’s lot of need in the area, considering the growth patterns there. We know the property will do well.”
According to application materials, the plan calls for 120 dwelling units across three-story buildings serviced by an elevator. The majority of the units, 108, would be priced at 60% of the Area Median Income while 12 units would feature lower rent rates at 40% AMI.
Auger said 50 percent of the apartments would be one-bedroom units while the rest would be a mix of two-bedroom and three-bedroom units. Amenities would include a fitness center, computer center, and pool.
The property, owned by an entity named Snyder Street Properties LLC since 2015, has seen a number of planned development projects come and go in recent years, according to county records.
In August 2022, Luxer Development submitted plans for a 72-unit townhome community. on the site. The company withdrew the request in April.
In 2010, Wendover Housing Partners submitted plans to Orange County for a 124-unit affordable senior housing multifamily project on this Goldenrod property called Southwick Commons. The county approved the land-use plan in late 2013.
Wendover pulled out of the project and ultimately wound up pursuing a different iteration of its Southwick Commons concept, with 195 units, in Apopka within its city center along 7th Street. The developer has since been embroiled in a legal battle with the city after it denied the affordable housing project and then delayed the issuance of permits.
In 2018, after Wendover abandoned its project on Goldenrod Road, American Civil Engineering Company submitted a pre-application request to the county on behalf of the owner with plans for a storage facility. That also didn’t happen.
The property is tucked amid a heavily commercialized area, surrounded by retailers and restaurants. Single-family homes within the Pinar Heights subdivision extend on adjacent land to the south. AdventHealth East Orlando hospital sits nearby to the north on the opposite side of Lake Underhill Road.
This is the second multifamily proposal to emerge in recent months near this hospital.
GAI Consultants is seeking approval of a land-use change that would allow 72 units on a nearly 20-acre tract just north of S.R. 408. Waivers are also sought to allow taller buildings and less recreational area than what’s permitted under county code due to the amount of wetlands on the site.
Birdsong Housing Partners has been involved in several projects in the Orlando area. In 2020, the company entered into a public/private partnership with Osceola County to develop 354 units of affordable housing on county-owned land next to the Poinciana SunRail station.
That project, Falcon Trace II, is currently under construction after the developer secured the LIHTC financing of $42.88 million from Florida Housing Finance Corporation in 2022. In addition, Birdsong received a $6.6 million SAIL loan from the state and another $14.75 million in bridge financing from Osceola County.
Other local Birdsong projects include three in Kissimmee: Palos Verde Apartments, a 120-unit affordable senior housing community; Los Altos, a 100-unit affordable apartment complex; and Gannett Pointe, an 80-unit housing community for homeless persons.
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