Single-family home community will be Lake Worth’s first in a decade
LAKE WORTH — It’s been more than a decade since the last single-family home community was built in the city.
That one was Vernon Heights, a development on the west side of Dixie Highway near Interstate 95.
Now, Lake Cove community, a 59 single-family home subdivision, is being built on a 12-acre site on 19th Avenue North, just north of Vernon Heights.
“They have their building permits and we’re expecting to see construction very soon,” said Mark Stivers, Lake Worth’s deputy director of community sustainability.
There are currently five other housing projects underway or near completion in Lake Worth.
■ The One, a 14-unit, fourstory condo on South Palmway and Lake Avenue that is 60 percent sold and due to be completed in August.
■ Banyan Court Apartments, a 3-story complex on North A Street that will include 85 1- and 2-bedroom units.
■ Adopt-A-Family is building a 14-unit housing development at North A Street and 3rd Avenue North by 2020.
■ The MID, a 230-unit project at 1601 N. Dixie Highway received an economic development incentive from the city in May, with staff still awaiting for submission of the major site plan.
■ Golden Roads, a 189-unit apartment complex on the north side of 10th Avenue, just west of Boutwell Road.
“You’ll see a visible difference in the next five years in the city,” said Stivers. “Change is coming, and change is happening in the city.”
Meritage Homes is the company building Lake Cove for $16 million. The homes range from 1,708 to 2,819 square feet and are priced from the mid-$300,000s to $400,000.
Justin Cook, a division vice president for South Florida at Meritage Homes, said he doesn’t believe the prices are too high.
“It’s not at all too pricey,” he said. “If you look at the comps in the surrounding areas, you put yourself in line or below. You have to be competitive, and you have to make sales. It’s really difficult in South Florida to find a single-family detached home for under $400,000 that’s built well.”
According to neighborhood.com, a real estate website, homes in Vernon Heights sell for $150,000 to $450,000 and sit on quarter-acre lots with four bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The area has been blighted for years, used as a giant dumping ground. Homes will be for sale around September, and Cook says construction should take about 16 months.
“Lake Worth has a lot of benefits, and it’s a great location,” he said. “The city is going through a lot of changes and improvements and is going to become a destination spot. It’s a good opportunity.”
Rossy Muriolo, a 20-yearold who rents a house on 19th Street, said she’s happy about the project.
“It’s great for families that need homes,” she said. “It might improve our neighborhood, which isn’t that bad.”
Another resident, who declined to give her name, has lived in the area for two years with her husband and their son. She was also pleased.
“It’s a good thing because more people are coming in and it means more money,” she said.
There have, however, been some issues.
Cook said several residents responded negatively to the new development and were concerned about traffic.
“We’ve held community meetings and talked to residents in the surrounding area and answered their questions and added some things they expected,” he said, adding that Meritage is planning more speed humps in the community to make sure things remain safe. “Everybody’s concern was traffic.”
Lake Cove’s original design had one access point, but after meeting with residents, a second was added.
Cook also said since Lake Worth has not built a single-family community in quite some time, it created a few challenges on how things would get processed.
“This isn’t something they’ve done in a while,” Cook said.
Lake Worth has its share of challenges. Stivers said the city’s poverty rate is about the same as Belle Glade.
“Some people will start saying ... I don’t want to invest in a $200,000 or a $300,000 home in Lake Worth,” he said. “That scares them away.”
But Meritage is taking that risk.
“We are looking to improve the housing stock in our city,” Stivers said. “We’re looking at getting more homes built ... and this is having a positive effect on Dixie Highway to attract more people to the area. We want to see a shift in our profile.”