Anchoring a community
Groundbreaking for Pine Hills affordable housing brings Town Center plan closer
Orange County leaders broke ground Wednesday on an affordable housing complex for seniors in the heart of Pine Hills, with the hope it leads to even better things.
The 120-unit development, called Hawthorne Park, replaces a chunk of a dying shopping plaza at the busy intersection of Silver Star and North Pine Hills roads.
“We’ve been working to develop this area as a Town Center,” said Patricia Rumph, Pine Hills Community Council president. “This is an important step in that direction.”
She said the $27 million project, located west of Maynard Evans High School, could become a foundation for the community to rebuild on.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings also hailed the development by Wendover Housing Partners, which received financial incentives from the state and county.
“This is the kind of project that is really viable,” he said. “People want to live close to where they shop, close to where they eat and they want it to be a safe area.”
Demings, who created an affordable housing task force when he took office in 2018, listed the project as an example of what can be accomplished with collaboration.
Designed for senior residents ages 55 and older, Hawthorne Park will offer a mix of one-bedroom, one-bath and two-bedroom, two-bath units. Rents start at $740 a month for one-bedroom apartments and $880 a month for two-bedroom units. Apartments come with a full-size washer/ dryer, kitchen island and an emergency call system.
It also will include a computer room, a fitness room and a small dog park.
Hawthorne Park will tie in with other projects planned for the area, including the LYNX bus
transit center which will be located on the north side of Silver Star Road.
“Things are coming along,” said Commissioner Victoria Siplin, whose district includes Hawthorne Park and much of Pine Hills.
The project, already underway, also will add a needed asset to the county’s inventory of affordable housing, which is in short supply in the wage-depressed community.
“You’re talking about a place to live where the rents will be more controlled,” said Mitchell Glasser, county manager of Housing and Community Development. “Rents are not going to go up or down dramatically based on the economy and you know we’ve seen what rents have done in Orange County over the last few years. It’s been on a tear.”
Expected to be completed in about 11 months, Hawthorne Park is the third new Wendover housing project in the region targeting economically disadvantaged people.
The company also built Warley Park in Sanford, the area’s first development designed specifically to provide a home to people who had been homeless. Wendover also is developing Durham Place, a $28-million, 100-unit development off South Orange Blossom Trail that will offer on-site child care, employment services, GED training and life-skills classes.
The projects were funded in part with tax credits awarded by the Florida Housing Finance Corp., created by the state Legislature to increase affordable housing options.
Jonathan L. Wolf, Wendover founder and CEO, said he was confident the project will spark Pine Hills’ economic engine.
“Hawthorne Park is the result of a cooperative effort between Orange County, private enterprise, members of the Pine Hills Neighborhood Improvement District and a grassroots effort of residents working to improve the Pine Hills area, which dates back to the 1950s,” he said. “It should be a catalyst for revitalizing this community corridor.”